Late Revenge
by nightDREAMERms
Summary: She squeaked out, “I should wreak revenge!” Unknown to the outside world, Inner Sakura pumped her fist in the air. Hidan leant over and whispered into Kakuzu’s ear, “When you were five, did you even have a freakin’ clue to what ‘wreak revenge' meant?
1. Chapter 1

nightDREAMERms: I'm just trying this one out ok. If you guys like it I'll continue it, but it probably wont be on the regular basis like Naruto Summer School. Just when I get to it or feel like updating. Oh and originally this was set when they were younger but I've decided to make them older to really start the pranks. Pairing? I'm not exactly sure if there will or wont be one.

"talking"

'thinking'

"**Inner Sakura/ Zetsu's darker side" **

"_Zetsu's lighter side"_

--

Seven young boys sat in a circle. The group was very well ... Diverse. And apparently none or most had no fashion sense what so ever. Colors clashed with hair, eyes, and in some cases, skin color. But, they all wore the same black cloak with little red stars going around them. Now what would a group of nine-year old children do in a dark, in-closed room on the weekend? No good of course.

"So, everything's ready?" A blue-tanned one asked. Gill like markings on his cheek raising and lowering with the rise and fall of his lips.

"Yeah, we've got all the items, right Kakuzu?" A boy with hair the color of fresh blood replied.

"Actually… no-" The masked-boy was subject to a dump load of glares. "Nothing was on sale!" he defended. "But I sent Zetsu out to find us some stuff cheap."

Another boy, a little tall for his age, but not as tall as the blue one, crossed his arms and leaned his back against the wall he was near and, sprawling out his long ebony hair and eventual hair grease on the wallpaper behind him. He could do what he wanted. It _was_ his room anyway. He closed his dark eyes, though some would call it deep ruby when reflected in sunlight, "So all we do now is sit and wait."

"Pretty much, yeah. Eh, what's taking him so long?" The blonde looked towards the only exit of the bedroom.

As if answering his thoughts, the door creaked open revealing a shorter boy with emerald hair and a greenish tint to his skin.

"It followed-" he started.

Suddenly, a male with white-blondish hair spoke up. "Oh _hell_ no. That last "It followed me" Brought _Tobi_ up here!"

Another boy, wearing a pumpkin-colored mask with a swirl mark and small eye hole, raised his hand, as if to acknowledge that he was there and waved it vigorously.

A loud sniff echoed throughout the room, causing everyone to look around Zetsu.

A pink-haired girl wiped away the tears from her turquoise eyes with the back of her hand. She looked down at her shoes and sniffled once more.

The blue boy elbowed the ebony-haired one. "Isn't that the girl who's obsessed with your younger-" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Yeah," he interrupted, "I know." He stared at her casually interested. Of all the times she'd ever been over to Uchiha residence, never once had she actually entered his room.

Sakura felt a shiver run up and down her back as cold as ice and glanced up to meet Itachi's stare. Instinctively, she froze mid-sniff, cowered and ran to hide behind the nearest object. _That _just happened to be Deidara.

Said blonde turned on the rest of the group, "Hey! You're scaring her, yeah!" He then turned around and gently placed the shivering girl in his lap. Rubbing her back with one hand and threading his fingers through her pink tresses with the other, all the while saying insignificant phrases to calm her down.

The rest of the group just stared, too… shocked to do much else.

"So I'm good with kids!" Deidara shot back, scowling at their expressions. Then turned his head, hoping to hide the embarrassment written on his cheeks, "So sue me." he muttered.

Tobi indiscreetly poked the no-longer-crying-girl.

The red head known as Sasori rolled his eyes at the scene, "Moving on. Zetsu you got the supplies, right?"

The boy turned his head toward the speaker, revealing that his head was actually two-toned, one dark green and the other a lighter hue. "**Well that's the thing, the brat-**_That cute little girl had all of these!"_ His voice underwent a major change in the middle of his speech, but the majority of people in the room were used to it, besides the more unusual thing was all the items that lay in a pile on the ground in front of them: Dye, ribbon, makeup, spy equipment, a voice recorder, sugar tablets, ribbons, frilly clothing, face paint, random character body suits, multi-colored sharpies and even one can of spray paint.

The room turned their attention to Sakura, who let out a tiny nervous smile, "Heh heh?"

Kisame let out an amused chuckle, nonetheless his tone was demanding, "Ok little girl, spill."

Sakura looked down into her lap, hair covering her eyes, "They… were being mean, so she-"

"She?" Sasori interrupted.

Sakura looked up to face him but in doing so actually realized that all nine boys were staring at her and went slightly pink. "Well _I_ thought," she squeaked out, "I should **wreak revenge**!!" Unknown to the outside world, Inner Sakura pumped her fist in the air.

Hidan leant over and whispered into Kakuzu's ear, "When you were five, did you even have a freakin' _clue_ to what 'wreak revenge' meant?"

The masked boy shook his head and shrugged.

Kisame sat and thought about it for a minute before slapping his hands down on the ground next to him, causing the weak-hearted to jump in surprise. "Well, whatever, we got the same goal in anyway, I say let her in."

The mutterings around her showed Sakura that most of the rest of the people in the room agreed with him and her eyes started to glow happily, hastily she climbed out of Deidara's lap and pulled out a piece of paper. She waved it in front of her, "And I've got a list of what to do to 'em too!" she shouted excitedly.

Her heart plummeted for a moment when she felt the paper being snatched from her hand. Apparently, she had been brandishing the item to close to the elder Uchiha's face and he deemed it annoying and took it from her. His eyes skimmed the paper until he reached the bottom; his face held no emotion but his eyes dimly reflected amazement.

"This… is ingenious."

----

nightDREAMERms: So.. what do you think? If the story continues, they'll all be in highschool when the pranks start. Too me it's funner that way! Tell me what you think! And no, I don't need ideas for pranks I really _do_ have a list but if you want you can list your ideas in a review. Oh right, REVIEW!!!!! o


	2. Chapter 2

nightDREAMERms: Wow! So many reviews for one lil' chapter? O.O Well apparently you guys like this story so I'll continue it. Pairings may or may not last throughout the story, and the main character, i.e. Sakura will not have a lasting pairing. Now that can mean LOTS of things, but I'll let you think and think until ur brain cells die XD! Pranks will start… when I get to it. I haven't typed that far yet!

"talking"

'thinking'

"**Inner Sakura/ Zetsu's darker side" **

"_Zetsu's lighter side"_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, etc.)

---------

-FASTFORWARD NINE YEARS-

_Chapter Two: _

--

-7:04 a.m. August 23rd-

"Come on, Sakura. Get up!"

"Mhmm…"

"Mhmm? What does Mhmm mean!"

"MHMMM!!"

"If this is about seeing Sasuke-"

Immediately Sakura sat up and her bed, almost wacking foreheads with Tenten. "That _name _does not exist to me anymore." she snarled in a monotone (a startling feat), before submerging her head in a large fluffy pillow.

"Okay then, is this about seeing your _ex_, because if it is, your just being a little sissy. You can't run away from him forever."

Sakura flashed her an obscene gesture from underneath her sheets.

"Very mature."

"Ano… Sakura-san, if we don't leave soon we'll miss the bus."

"Mm mus man mmuck mimflf!"

"What?"

"Mwa Mus Mahn Mmwuck Mwemwelf"

"I can't understand you with your head under-"

"I SAID, THE BUS CAN-… ugh nevermind.."

Slowly but surely, Sakura pushed the covers off of herself, swinging her legs over the edge of her bed. She squinted her eyes, and put up a hand to her forehead, blocking the streaming sunlight that entered via her window.

As her eyes adjusted to the light she turned towards the intruders. "Who let you guys in anyway?"

The brunette crossed her arms, watching the pinkette pick up discarded items from the floor, mainly clothes, and fix her bed, "You're mom. Apparently, she came up here and tried to wake you up, but you wouldn't budge."

"I still wish I hadn't." Sakura murmured under her breath, walking to her closet.

"What was that?"

"I said I'm so lucky to have to you guys as my friends!"

Tenten gave her blank look, "That was notably longer than what you said before, but we really don't have the time to debate right now. Hinata- Time."

The Hyuuga that had been silent since Sakura had gotten out of bed, checked her watch, "7 minutes 13 seconds counting down."

"Hurry up, SAKURA!" By now, Sakura was in her bathroom, brushing her teeth. She was lucky enough to have her own personal bathroom, although it was no where NEAR as luxurious as Hinata's.

"I'm trying to, but you two keep talking to me." She said in garbled gibberish then spat out her toothpaste in the sink.

"I don't have a clue to what you just said" Tenten yelled, her voice being muffled by the running water. "But hurry up!!! " She paused then added as an afterthought, "You _do_ have your stuff ready don't you?"

"Back closet, on top of the shoe rack. Hinata-chan, could you get me some clothes?"

"Jean skirt or black kapris?"

"Umm... Both!"

Sakura, looked in her mirror, her bed head made her want to laugh. Her eyes roamed to a silver bracelet laying innocently behind a lotion bottle and her entire mood dropped seven levels. Her hand reached for it then paused, landing on the tip of the bottle instead of reaching her destination. She contemplated wearing the jewelry.

'Maybe he didn't recognize me… and it was just a little fling.'

When Sakura walked out of the small room, a light green one-strapped book bag was thrown at her. She caught it effortlessly.

"Good your done. Time Hinata?"

"Five minutes-"

"Great, now-"

"Past."

"Crap."

----

"Thank you _so_ much, Hinata-chan!" Sakura dropped her head and did a mini bow of appreciation.

Tenten, to her right, did the same.

Hinata waved off their gestures, blushing a bit, "No, it's ok! And besides, I would have been late too if we hadn't of rode the limo."

The three freshman walked, heads held up high, into the unknown abyss that was high school.

And of course, as all good stories go, one had to trip.

Sakura, slowly got up from her newly found position on the ground grumbling and muttering curses.

A hand suddenly appeared in front of her face. Sakura's attention was instantly drawn to the dazzling emerald surrounded by diamonds. After the pause, Sakura took the help offered to her.

"That's a beautiful ring." She commented, eyes locked on the jewel.

"Thanks." _"-mmm… Sasuke…kun"_

Sakura's head snapped up as she recognized the voice and she was met with a red-haired woman. The hair was tidy yet unruly at the same time. Her eyes reflected the same color as it, only slightly darker. Her lips seemed to smile, but to Sakura it seemed more like a smirk. A growl started up her throat.

"Thank you for helping my friend, she's a bit of a ditz" A familiar voice broke through her thoughts and ended her glare.

"Ino?"

The blonde gave her a piece sign. "The one and only! I haven't seen you in months, Sakura." She casually looked her up and down. "Looks like I haven't missed much."

The green-eyed girl shot her a death glare and opened her mouth to retort when Ino turned to the red-head.

"Ooohh! Nice ring! Where'd you get it?! Is it real??"

The girl, flipped her ruby locks behind her shoulder, before brandishing her hand. "Of course it is, my _boyfriend_ got it for me."

Sakura's heart plummeted.

"Oh wow, you must have _some_ guy. The most anyone of us got was Sakura, and that was just a-"

"Ino. Stop, please."

The blonde listened to her, puzzled at her sudden mood change. Then went back to her conversation with the unnamed woman. "You're Karin, right? One of the Varsity cheerleading captains?"

She smiled that deceiving smile, "Yes I am, why?"

'**So we know where to plant the bombs.'**

Ino's cheeks tinged pink, "Well, I was thinking about joining the squad…"

Karin gave her a mischievous look, "You know that tryouts are over, right?"

"Yeah, but… I was hoping you'd make a tiny exception, please?!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together.

"I'll think about it. Walk with me." She replied, and began strolling towards the building, followed closely by the pony-tailed girl.

Sakura glared daggers at the sophomore's back for some time until a palm was waved in front of her.

"Hello? Sakura? You okay there?" It was only then that she noticed that her two friends staring worriedly at her.

"I'm fine, Let's go in."

Hinata and Tenten exchanged looks before jogging to catch up with their friend.

At the door, Sakura stopped abruptly and told them to go on without her, she'd meet them in homeroom. They shot her curious looks but agreed nonetheless.

Sakura walked a little ways away from the entrance, until she was at the bottom of the concrete steps that lead back to the school. Angrily, she yanked the heart bracelet off her wrist and cast it to the dirt. Stomping then spitting on the band. She huffed deeply, regaining her composure and turned to walk back into Konoha High, her new school.

'Good bye, Sasuke_-kun._'

-----

The school day progressed as normally, as any regular first day would. Nothing but teachers "introducing" themselves. That's code for: I haven't finished my lesson plan's yet, so here, do coloring sheets with crayons. Looking out for more important details, Sakura learned every class with atleast Ino, Tenten or Hinata, except for the period before lunch.

She had learned from Ino, in the middle of Algebra (Their assignment was to "draw geometric figures with a compass" In other words doodle on a sheet of lined paper.) that her group had planned to sit in the far right corner of the cafeteria. So it hadn't really bothered her that no one from her middle school was with her in that class.

As Sakura rounded the last flight of stairs, she heard a rather loud squeal of "Sasuke-kun." As a former girlfriend of said boy, she had learned that fan-girls were literally _everywhere_ and ignored the voice. It was only when she was meters away from their appointed lunch table, did she see her, she almost dropped her tray.

Sitting in _his_ lap, was Karin. She was musing his hair, and he looked like he was… _enjoying _it? Yep, he definitely wore a smirk on his face. And he still looked utterly del- NOO! Sakura shook the traitorous thoughts from her head and proceeded to join the table, plastering on a fake smile.

"Hello." she announced, determined to ignore the new couple's presence. So far, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, Naruto, Lee, Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, _him_, and Shino were at the table.

Immediately, Lee and Naruto tried to glomp her, but years of knowing them gave her excellent reflexes and they ended up hugging each other. Shino and Neji sent her acknowledging nods, while the three girls vocalized their greetings. Shikamaru sighed a waved before munching on a home brought apple. No doubt it was too _troublesome_ to wait in the school lines. Chouji mumbled a "Hewmo" while eating a rather fancy meal. But… she was missing someone…

"Hey. Where's Kiba?" she asked looking around the table once more.

Naruto snickered after slurping down the ramen he kept in a thermos. When he had learned of the invention he had literally got down to his knees and praised the one who suggested it. Sakura inwardly giggled at the memory, Hinata had turned bright red! "He's in the principal's office, they have some rule against pets here." he answered, unable to rid himself of the smirk.

Sakura laughed at the picture of an angry Kiba yelling at the school's administration about little.. Err.. Not so little Akamaru. She could somewhat understand the school's worry about him, he'd gotten _Ginormous _over the summer, but he was still a big softy!

"Ahem. Hello Sakura."

The voice brought Sakura out of her ponderings and erased the smile from her face. 'Why can't you just let me ignore you?' "Hello, Karin." she replied her tone dead, and her eyes wouldn't meet hers.

Ino watched the silent exchange between the girls. She leant over to Sakura's ear "I understand now why you didn't want me to continue earlier. I didn't know she was Sasuke's new girlfriend. But, you don't have to be mean to her, dating Sasuke isn't a crime."

"You don't understand!" She answered, quite loudly, dropping the fork in her hand into the dish she was consuming, drawing attention from all of her table and a few tables around them.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Karin asked, worry evident in her voice. Stupid actress.

"I'm fine." She mumbled, scooting her chair out from under herself creating a louder noise than before and causing even more tables to look over.

She ignored the stares, picked up her book bag and left the table. Not once had she looked at _him_ and she didn't want to. Truth be told, she was afraid. Afraid she'd see the same thing she saw before.

Just before she was out of hearing age she heard a males voice, "What's with her? The last time I saw her this upset was at that sleepover _years _ago."

Sakura halted, it was for less than a second but she still stopped, she had forgotten all about that.

"_Itachi! Have you boys seen a little girl- oh there you are Sakura!"_

_Sakura and the rest of the children in the room looked up to see a delightfully plump woman in the doorway. Sakura recognized her as Mikoto Uchiha, Sasuke's mom. _

"_What are you all doing in here with the lights off?" Her eyes reached the paper in Itachi's hand. She hastily took it from him. Well.. We know where the Uchiha brothers got there snatching issue from. As she read it and her frown deepened. "If _this_ is what you're going to do when Sasuke has his sleepovers, you won't be having them at the same time as him anymore."_ _At the end of her declaration she took Sakura's wrist and lead her from the room. _

_There was no pleading, it was un-Uchiha and besides her tone was final. _

She never saw any of them again after that. Sasuke later told her that Itachi had been accepted into some prestigious elementary school but he would go to the same middle school and high school as they did. But, the age differences prevented her from attending the same school as any of them.

But.. Now that she thought about it… They _should_ be all seniors now. But… she hadn't seen any black cloaks with red stars..

Suddenly she found herself on the ground once more, this time however all she could see was black and red clouds.

_-------- _

nightDREAMERms: Ehh.. It was ok, I think. I like how this is going, so far. Don't let up on the pranks ppls! I've decided on more pranks than I was originally gonna put! Oh and if you don't understand with the Karin, Sasuke, Sakura triangle then good, I've been doing my job as a writer right. If you do. Then T-T Fine spoil my fun!


	3. Chapter 3

nightDREAMERms: -sniffle- I just saw the latest manga chapter of Naruto. NO DEI-KUN!!! And Tobi CAN'T be dead! He just can't! -anime weeps- Well at least we got to see Leader. Though it was confusing. If you still don't understand the whole leader mess, read my author note at the bottom it had what I and the majority of people who read the manga think. But, the whole leader thingy influenced me to change my story a bit than what I was originally planning. DON'T think I'm not doing the pranks. No the pranks are the entire plotline of the story. (AND THE FUNNEST PART!) But remember people, I don't know the personality's of certain people because Kishimoto hasn't showed us yet, so later on when the characters personas DO appear, don't start telling me so and so is OOC. Okay enough ranting, To the story!

"talking"

'thinking'

"**Inner Sakura/ Zetsu's darker side" **

"_Zetsu's lighter side" _

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, etc.)

--

Chapter 3:

--

Sakura found herself being shoved into a unknown room, it was dimly lighted and had a faint damp smell.

"Have fun!" she heard Deidara's voice echo throughout the area before a door slam that caused her to jump.

'That b-stard.'

_-FLASHBACK: Approximately 17 minutes earlier - _

"Why do _I_ always end up being the one on the floor?" Sakura whined, though it was significantly muffled by the cloth smushed against her face. Wait… she sniffed it, a rather odd thing to do but a bad habit of her's. It smelt… familiar.

She suddenly found herself barely an inch away from a man's face, his crystal blue eyes almost connecting with her emerald. "Because you have the grace equivalent to that of an overgrown hippo, yeah."

Automatically Sakura pulled back, letting out a mix of an scream and yell as her elbows hit the ground below her.

The man only chuckled and got back to his feet, black robes swirling around him.

When he started walking away, Sakura's anger overcame surprise and released itself, "Hello?! You're just gonna leave me here?!!"

The man swung half-way around, his blonde hair swinging with him. His face mirrored that of amusement. "Yeah?"

Sakura clenched her fists, trying not to give into Inner Sakura's influence, who was at this moment declaring that she yank his stupid ponytail until he cried mercy. "No. You're gonna come back over here and help me up, _properly._"

His lips quirked into a smile, he turned all the way around. "And why would I do that, yeah?"

"_Because_-" Whatever her reason would not be discovered as her words died on her lips. The black cloak with red figures, the hair, the eyes, why didn't she catch it sooner!

"Hey, I _know_ you!" She pointed an index finger at him.

His smile turned into a smirk. "You do?"

"Yeah, you're that guy!"

"That guy?"

"Yeah, _that_ guy!"

"Oh, _that_ guy."

Her hand itched to smack him one but her brain settled on a glare. "Shut up! Don't you remember, the sleepover, the plan, nine years ago?" She jumbled up most of the main points of the night, hoping to jog his memories.

The man gave her a blank look. "You expect me to remember something that happened almost a _decade _ago."

"Umm… well, I guess not." Of _course_ he wouldn't remember something that happened all those years ago. She wasn't even quite sure why she herself remembered the moment. But still, she kind of wished he did, then maybe…

'**Who **_**cares**_** if he doesn't remember now, they agreed once! Maybe they'll do it again!' **

'Why do I need _their_ help? And besides, who says I even _want_ to prank my _friends_ anymore. We've gotten over that!'

'**First of all, **_**I**_** haven't gotten over that and still need my revenge. Second of all, they were and probably still **_**are**_** the best and worse in breaking rules and not getting caught. Third of all, it isn't about the sleepover thing anymore it's about getting you-know-who back, Sakura-style!' **

'No. I am not a child. I do not need to lower myself to that level to feel content with our breakup.'

'… _**We could get Karin**_**…' **

'… Let's do it.'

The man had started walking away again so Sakura sprang to her feet and tried to catch up to him. "Hey! Wait!"

He slowed his pace down slightly and looked down at her curiously.

"I umm- Need a small favor!… Umm, actually a Big favor" she exclaimed, her arms widening to show the intensity of her problem.

He gave her a look that said "Go on."

"Well, I need to errr… _get _certain people back, and I was sorta hoping you'd help me." Deep inside Sakura knew this wasn't going to work. Normal people did not go around doing other people's ill-will just because you asked them too. If they did… ugh, Sakura didn't even want to _think_ about the consequences.

"Still in for "revenge" I see, yeah."

Sakura's cheeks tinted pink, "No, I just- Hey!" Sakura turned and glared wholeheartedly at the blonde who had started laughing at her sudden realization. "You _do_ remember me!"

The blonde controlled his laughter and turned to her once more, "It's a little hard to forget a random pink-haired, five year-old girl, running into a pre-Akatsuki meeting, ranting about "wreaking revenge" and even amazing Itachi with her handiwork." he abruptly stopped smiling and frowned. "Plus, that's what made everyone question my sexuality for _months_.Thanks for that."

Sakura simply giggled, "Welcome! But what's the Ah-cat-suke?"

"Akatsuki." he corrected. "It's our official group name."

"Oh." Sakura's eyes were once again drawn to his cloak, the flared out with every step he took, making him look a lot more imposing than he would without it. Black with red stars- no clouds.

"Why did you change it?" Sakura asked absently, eyes still firmly locked on the cloth.

"Change what- oh, the cloaks. Well obviously we got bigger and can't fit in our old ones anymore."

Sakura rolled her eyes, "I _meant_ why did you change from stars to clouds." She crossed her arms. " I liked the stars."

A light smirk reappeared on his face and for some reason it unsettled Sakura. "Leader decided to change it."

"Leader?" Her brows furrowed.

The smirk stayed in place, "Yeah, the man you're about to see."

Sakura looked up at her surroundings for the first time, she had been so absorbed in pre-planning and talking that she hadn't noticed _where_ they were walking. She was in a hallway that she didn't recognize, but then again it was only her first day. There was only two doors in the walkway and they had already passed one. The other was a darker brown than most of the other doors of the school. It was also a double door with the word Akatsuki _carved_ into each single door at the average eye level. Which meant Sakura had to stick her chin up to read it.

"What-Why?"

"Leader is the one who assigns us missions, if you want me or anyone else to work with you on your revenge scheme you need to get it approved by him."

"But I-"

"Don't worry, just remember to say Deidara sent you."

"Wait, Dei-"

Too late, Sakura had been shoved full force into the room.

_-Present Time- _

"State you name, business, and who referred you to me."

Sakura felt a shiver crawl down from the back of her head when she heard the voice, it was so calm and careless yet misleading at the same time. Straight out of the bad guy scene in a Blockbuster movie.

As her eyes adjusted to this new amount of light, she got a better view of the room. It was quite large… or maybe it just seemed to be that way, because of the fact that the only piece of furniture there was a medium sized desk. Behind the desk was a chair, with a person- no two people.

One guy looked like he had a multiple of piercings. And the other was a girl with some kind of flower in her hair. She was seated sideways in his lap, doing a number on his neck.

Sakura wasn't sure if the similar position, the fact that she was overly nervous, or that the setting really Did look like something out of a film that made her utter the _dumbest_ thing she could've Possibly have said at that moment.

"What is she, your _pet_ or something."

--------

nightDREAMERms: Remember kiddies, when asking for a favor try not to _insult_ the ones your asking said favor from. Unfortunately, Sakura is already over the edge with this one. Oh and yeah that's Pain in all his glary and the girl Im gonna call Mutsume. Why? Cause they haven't said her name yet!

Right the "explanation"

Pain Akatsuki Leader.

Pain also has someone with a higher authority giving _him_ orders.

The Higher Authority Unknown.

Hope you liked this chapter! … Crap I need to work on my other story before peoples start ranting for an update… checks mail T-T Too late.


	4. Chapter 4

nightDREAMERms: I just finished my list of tasks! Yeah! Of course you don't know what the tasks are for (they aren't the list of pranks) but it'll come up soon enough. I think I might like the tasks better than the pranks themselves! Oh and reminder to readers/reviewers, have ideas for pranks? Mention them in the review!

P.S. Thanks SpeedDemon315 and Chocolate Chan! I'll use the names you guys gave!

--

"talking"

'thinking'

"**Inner Sakura/ Zetsu's darker side" **

"_Zetsu's lighter side" _

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, etc.)

---

Chapter 4:

----

Sakura eyes widened as she automatically clamped a hand over her disaster-causing lips. Inside her mind, Inner Sakura was stomping around, pulling her hair and screaming "Stupid!" over and over again.

The woman, stopped her actions and slowly turned her head towards the newcomer.

Her eyes locked onto her form. Sakura gulped.

The ribbon wearing girl took a shaky step backwards as the woman soundlessly slipped out of the now-amused-looking man's lap. Her high heels clicked on the tile in a way that one would expect from royalty, even and deliberate; respect-demanding.

When she reached her, Sakura's breath hitched as she leant forward, staring with her lightly dyed blue pupils directly into her own sea-green. So close in fact, that Sakura could smell the rosemary perfume she was wearing. The staring was unwavering and extremely unnerving, so much that it forced her to turn her head away from the woman she had insulted, finding a rather particularly interesting rubber burn to cast her eyes to instead. At this said the blue-haired woman, pulled back, no change in her disposition.

"Dependent on others, stubborn, prideful, driven by emotion, and most of all _weak_." She announced to seemingly no one. Her voice held no vigor, it was not angry, nor bitter; she was talking as if reading off a script.

Sakura gritted her teeth but showed no outward emotion, as much as she hated _that word_ she really couldn't risk insulting the very people she was asking a favor from _again._ Though, as the way things were already occurring it didn't seem very likely that they'd help at all. No, she had done a rather _extraordinary_ job of screwing that up.

"But, has potential."

Her last sentiments, made Sakura's head snap right back to her. _Potential_? Was that a compliment? The woman did not smile, her eyes did not hide amusement. She spoke the truth and nothing but it. Almost… like a doll, a perfect porcelain doll whose face did not change, heck… did she even _blink_?! The only real defining part of her was the flower- a carnation, that was seated on the right side of her head. Not once had she displayed any sort of emotion. For some reason Sakura felt as if she should shake the woman's icy aura off of her, but did not instead she let out a shaky breath as the woman diverted her attention elsewhere. Man, the Akatsuki were _weird_.

"Interesting Koichi." The man from be fore's voice echoed, reminding her of his presence in the room. The man's call was, apparently, also a signal for him to return to him, for she began walking in the opposite direction in the same way she came, though they did seem slightly softer… or maybe it was just her own mind messing with her.

She returned to his side, but did not resume her seat, opting to stand to his right. The "Leader", as Deidara called him, rested his mouth on his entwined hands that were held up by his elbows, which were resting on his desk. The silent-yet-brooding pose Sakura recognized, having seen Sasuke use it several times. Now that her eyes had properly adjusted to the rooms dim lighting she could see the odd concentric circles that made up his pupils… that were staring directly at her. Oh, right. Didn't he ask her a question, before?

"Umm… I'm Sakura Haruno, Deidara sent me here, he said that if I wanted them to help me with a favor that I need to get it "approved" by you?" She answered in the form of a question. Probably in the wrong order too, but well she remembered the question, didn't she?! That in itself was a miracle.

The auburn-haired man, stared at her for a few moments longer, before leaning back into his chair. "How much are you offering for this "favor"."

Sakura was taken back for a second before drawing a blank. She hadn't been expecting this. She didn't think she'd need to pay money. As it was, her volunteer hours at the hospital wasn't paying much. Hello, _volunteer_ hours. "Umm… nothing really, I just wanted to…" What was she supposed to say; a decade ago they said they help her with her revenge plan and now she's back to pick up the rain check? No!!

The senior seemingly read her mind. "Hmm… the only way that you could possibly get the Akatsuki to work with you, without being charged, is if you'd join it." Leader replied, after another moment of quiet thought. It wasn't really an offer, but it was as close as she'd ever get.

'But… I don't _want_ to join the Akatsuki.'

'**Ok, listen up, **_**little**_** girl. All freakin' day for the past what is it-THREE MONTHS! I've heard you whine and complain about what that jerk did to us. Now we've got our chance to fulfill our revenge scheme and **_**more. **_**And **_**you**_** don't wanna do it??" **

'It's _different_. Asking an organization to help you do some dirty work is Extremely different than actually joining said organization.'

'**You can always **_**quit **_**afterwards, Sakura.' **

'….Well… I guess you're right about that.'

'**D-mn Straight! I've worked way too hard to let this all fall apart now.' **

'Worked?! You haven't done a single flippin' THING!'

'…'

'Yeah, that's what I thought.'

"I'll do it. I'll join!" Sakura spoke up, eyes glittering in determination.

He removed his hands from the lower part of his face, revealing the same smirk of amusement she saw before. He reached into the left desk drawer, and pulled out something that caught the small amount of light in the room, before effortlessly throwing it towards Sakura, who stumbled a bit to catch the shiny object.

She opened her palm, though she could feel from holding it what it was. She held it up, between index and thumb. Now that she thought about it, she remembered seeing Deidara wearing the same thing on his right hand. But, his was different. "Why is the jewel blank?" Sakura voiced, her confusion. Indeed, the little crystal was free of kanji or color, and looking quite plain.

The Leader's grin grew even wider, "You didn't think we'd let you join just like that, did you?"

----

"She's the _WHAT?!" _

Deidara, massaged the newly sore part of his ear, "No need to _yell_, Hidan. Sakura-chan's the new recruit."

Sakura blinked up at the faces of the Akatsuki, some looked vaguely familiar, while others she could barely recognize. They'd all gotten so much… _bigger._ Sakura felt a strong urge to shrink and hide behind Deidara's cloak after feeling all the eyes on her- Woah! Deja vu! Even though she wanted to, she wouldn't allow herself, if she were to gain their respect, she couldn't act like a child. Yes, she was much more mature now. Well… that's what she liked to tell herself. In either way, she stared them all back in the eye, her posture expressing defiance. She was about to question as to if they remembered who she was, when suddenly she was tackled to the ground by a blur of orange. So much for the "mature" act.

"NA-RU-TO!" She growled, out of pure instinct, groaning while picking herself up from the floor. 'Sheesh, three times!' So she was surprised, when she her hand grappled onto dark hair instead of blonde when she pulled up the perpetrator's head.

"Tobi remembers Sakura-chan! Tobi is a good boy, right Sakura-chan?!!" The man with an orange swirly mask, bobbed his head with imaginary music, while tilting his face up towards her. Even without being able to see his face, Sakura new his eyes were screaming, "Pet me! Pet me! I'm cute!"

Hesitantly and a bit awkwardly, she patted the top of his head, "Ummm, sure you are Tobi?" 'How in the _world_ did _he_ get in _here_.' Unable to read her thoughts, Tobi beamed from behind his mask, and shifted so he was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Head still bobbing to unheard music.

Sakura had just finished dusting herself off when a stack of papers was shoved into her side. Curious, she took it and skimmed over the top. 'Sakura's Tasks?'

"What is this?" She questioned, looking up at the Akatsuki members, who were all looking a little to smug for her liking.

The one named Kirame… No Kisame! Yeah that's it! Kisame spoke up, she remembered him "_That_, girl, is the list of tasks you must complete it you want to become an official Akatsuki member and have us help you with your little "revenge"."

Sakura shrugged, well that answered two questions, they did remember. Flipping back the title page, Sakura began to read what she was assigned to do. She thought she's have to do something much harder, not a measly bunch of "tasks". She could of swore she heard someone snicker, but ignored it as her own self being paranoid. Two lines in, she stopped smiling; seven lines in she started to frown; thirteen lines in her brow started to twitch; by the fifteenth line she had ripped her eyes away from the sheet. "What the _hell_ is this?!" She screeched.

"…What is _what_, Sakura-san?"

Sakura, twisted herself around to see… basically her whole table staring back. Not missing a beat, Sakura hid the sheets behind her back.

"Oh, nothing. What are you guys doing, out here?" Sakura asked, discreetly looking around the otherwise empty hallway. 'Where did those jackasses go?!'

Ino stepped forward and placed the back of her hand on Sakura's forehead, "Are you feeling okay? The lunch bell rang about a minute ago."

Sakura slapped her hand away, "I'm fine. Let's go, you and me have six period Spanish right?" She was eager to get away from the rest of her friends on the off chance one would notice her odd stance.

"Uhh, yeah and Karin."

Sakura momentarily froze and turned back towards the group of teens. Karin raised and waved a dainty little ring-wearing hand back. Sakura fixed her with a glare then remembered her company and changed it into a fake little smile. So fake, that even Ino had to wince.

She shoke her head and grabbed the red-head's non-waving hand, "Come on, Karin. Let's just go. FH's still in her _mood_. "

"Oh- Ok." She played the silly innocent girl and waved once, more, always flashing her silly little emerald. Probably, hoping to get Sakura jealous. Sakura only waved, back, her fake smile still going strong. Heh, there was no reason to be jealous, anymore.

Her _own _ring was hidden behind her back.

-----

Sakura, was elated when the school bell rang for the last time that day. First days _always_ suck, but her's was much more… _stressful_ than most. She sent a nod to Hinata who told her they needed to go ask Neji which bus they were supposed to ride (seeing as they themselves missed the bus). Within moments, she was downstairs, heading away from the bus ramp. Apparently, Neji's last period was P.E., and he was still in the gymnasium. 'Lucky jerk.' Sakura was a member of Phys. Ed. first period, a.k.a suckers-who-were-stuck-being-sweaty through-out-the-rest-of-the-day club. On the way there they had met up with Tenten, she just came from Woodshop. She had insisted on taking the class for it's mathematic and artistic value… Well, that's what she told her parents at least. Sakura personally believed, Ten just liked the idea of being able to make her own weapons.

Now the trio were sitting on the stairs opposite the entrance/exit of the Physical Education area. Hinata and Tenten were in the middle of a chat, Sakura listening, but not really being _there _when the door slammed open, causing Sakura to fall out of her little dream-cloud.

"That was an amazing shot, Karin!"

Ino's whiny voice, was the next thing to reach Sakura's ears, and doing what else but, of course, praising Karin, the almighty one. Sakura almost snorted audibly at her own joke.

Kiba, sporting Akamaru in his rightful spot, leaped onto the railing of the stairs they were resting on. He must have won the argument between himself and the school's faculty…That or he just ignored them. "You three should've been there. Four seconds left on the clock. And out of Nowhere, Karin comes from the far side of the court, faking and dribbling all the way to the other end, then as she blocked by one the juniors, she throws the ball over the back of her head for a three-pointer TO WIN THE GAME!" Kiba, was always excited, when it came to sports, so Sakura figured he was over-exaggerating a bit, but the congratulating remarks from the rest of her gang told her otherwise.

Sakura just looked at her blankly, she didn't really care for her that much to congratulate her, but she really wasn't jealous of the girl either; she was pretty much proud of who she was and her own abilities by herself. She didn't need others to tell her. _Really._ She got enough (mostly unwanted) "pep-talks" from Inner Sakura to last for nine generations.

"So, it's the end of the first day of school. Who's up for the movies?"

Everyone, even Shikamaru, who would've normally replied something about it being too troublesome, agreed to come.

"What about you, Billboard brow?" Ino teased, lightly. They had gotten closer, so the insults were used now as nicknames… normally.

Sakura was about to agree when she felt an unnatural sensation. Her right ring finger was vibrating. Without looking down, she remembered her new ring. 'So this is how Leader alerts everyone.'

"Ummm… I-" She staled while looking a little past Ino, and behind the sickening couple (both of whom she was still ignoring the best she could). Deidara was leaning against the wall connected to the outside of the gymnasium. Once he saw her he winked and motioned for her to follow him before disappearing."-Can't. Sorry, I've got… homework."

Chouji frowned and stopped his hand from reaching into his recently purchased bag of chips, "On the first day?"

"And if you have homework, why don't the rest of us have some? We all go to the same classes." Naruto interjected.

"Because, baka. I have an advanced class, right before sixth remember? The one I _don't_ share with any of you." Inwardly, she thanked her brain for coming up with such a good excuse.

Grudgingly, the group accepted this, some even giving her their condolences.

Tenten looked back at her unsurely, starting to walk with away with the rest of the group. "Ok, then? I'll see you later." Hinata too, turned around and waved, her face was clouded with confusion. No doubt, they knew Sakura as one who although regarded her work with care, would rather relax than work any day.

Sakura waved back until they were out of sight, then jogged down the same hallway she saw the her fellow Akatsuki member disappear into before.

-----

nightDREAMERms: Hehe, cliffee! Hmmm, well I'm not really sure if that really counts as a cliffee. But it'll no doubt be fun to write chapter five. Time for the tasks to start! (Don't forget about prank idea ppls!)

FH- Stands for Forehead, apparently Ino felt the need to shorten it (though its still the same amount of syllables)


	5. Chapter 5

nightDREAMERms: -roflmao- I just reread last chapter and noticed I used the word "elated". I have NEVER in my Entire LIFE used that word, verbally or otherwise! I have absolutely no idea how it ended up in my story. For a second I had to go and check the author of the story to make sure that _I_ was actually the one who wrote it. Then when I figured out it really was me I laughed so hard I started to cry. Seriously, it must've been a typo or something -lol- ! Wow, that really cheered up my day!

--

"talking"

'thinking'

"**Inner Sakura/ Zetsu's darker side" **

"_Zetsu's lighter side" _

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

---

Chapter 4:

(elated! -snicker-)

----

"NO, I absolutely Refuse!"

"You don't have a choice, Sakura-chan. This is task one and you have to do it, yeah!"

"_I _don't have to do anything I don't want to!"

"Leader told you to, yeah."

"If _Leader_ told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?" Sakura replied, crossing her arms, and sending the blonde a pointed glare.

"Well, it depends on what's below me, how high the bridge is, if I have something supporting me, and the general situation…" Deidara had clearly thought out this answer, although the question was rhetorical. "But that's not the point, this is nothing like that, your not risking your _life, _yeah!"

"It's still wrong."

"No it's not, yeah."

"It's _illegal_."

"So is farting in a public place after 6:00pm on a Thursday in Florida."

"That doesn't mean- wait, _WHAT?!_" Sakura did a double take.

Deidara sighed and grabbed onto Sakura's forearm, tugging her down the hallway with him. "Look it up. Come on, we're wasting too much time, yeah."

Sakura forcibly released herself from his hold, but followed him nonetheless. "I'm still not doing it. It's stealing."

Deidara stopped walking near the end of the wall. Carefully, he peeked around the side. After a few moments of quiet observing he turned back to her.

"It's not really _stealing, _if the people who own the stuff don't know that they're supposed to get it, yeah."

Sakura arched an eyebrow. "And where did _that_ logic come from."

The blonde grinned cheekily, "Me!" He peered around the corner once more. "So you in?"

Sakura sighed, massaging her forehead with her thumb and fore-finger, her conscious was definitely going to give her a headache for this one… unless Inner Sakura beat her to it. "Don't you remember, 'I don't _have _a choice.'"

The grin widened, "Good. Now for mission details, yeah. Get out your Tasks Report. "

Confused, Sakura pulled out the stack of papers, she had placed carefully in the front zipper of her bookbag. "I already read this stuff, it's not very detailed." She turned opposite to herself so he could see it. "All it has is the title page and the list of tasks, after that just a whole bunch of blank sheets of paper." She did an experimental flip to show the unused papers at the end, before handing the whole packet to him. "The only thing it says about Task One is 'Get at least 20 pounds of clay from the art room'"

Deidara accepted the papers and flipped to the first empty page. "Not really, yeah. Watch" He closed his eyes and a performed a weird formation with his hand before reopening them and yelling "Kai!"

Sakura watched astounded as words started to appear on the sheet of paper, snatching the packet from his hands and scanning the sheet. "Genjutsu?! How did- but I-?"

Deidara smirked the same way he had when she met him for the second time. "It's normal not to sense an illusion when an Akatsuki casts it, yeah." He replied nonchalantly but you could see he was inwardly relishing his victory. "Besides, you wouldn't have been able to dispel it even if you did, _freshman_."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the last comment, and read the new information more thoroughly.

_Task One: Get at least 20 pounds of clay from the art room. _

"Why do you want so much clay?"

"Because. Keep reading, yeah."

_Infiltrators: Sakura Haruno and Deidara _

"I thought this was _my_ mission. Looks like _you're_ being dragged down with me!"

"Shut it, pinky."

_Details: 2:47pm. Suna Clay co. will arrive at Konoha High. Your mission is to either negotiate with the truckers- _

"Trick."

_-or resort to stealth methods. _

"Steal."

_Under no circumstances, are you to be seen by a school official, or you may suffer unfortunate consequences. _

"Expulsion."

_Nor are you to let the desired substance amount to enter the high school. The official member will oversee the unofficial attempt to complete this mission. The failure of this mission is failure of the introductory process of the Akatsuki and the unofficial member will have to sacrifice their ring and will be thereby banned from joining the ranks ever again. _

"So unfair."

_If the unofficial does complete the mission, the official member will mark it as so on the pre-dictated sheet. End Message Detail. _

…

_p.s. Deidara pwns all. _

"…"

"What? You know it's true, yeah!"

Sakura just sighed and shook her head.

"Come on are we doing this or what?" She started walking only to be dragged back behind Deidara.

"They're over there." He spoke in a low tone. "First, we need to figure out whether or not they seem like the type that we can trick or if they're willing give the clay to us. Otherwise, it may be harder to steal it, if they don't agree and know we want it."

Sakura blinked, "You've really thought this out, haven't you."

Deidara, just grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, "Nah, I've just had enough experience in this kind of stuff, yeah."

She frowned, "What's with the 'yeah'?" Sure she had heard him used it before, but now it seemed like he did it constantly.

He mirrored her expression, 'What 'yeah', yeah!"

Her frown deepened, '_That! _Doesn't it get confusing when your talking about negatives?"

He crossed his arms, "I have no idea what your talking about, yeah!"

She pointed an accusatory finger in his face, " See! Like that!"

He used his right hand to lower her finger, "Like _what_?"

Sakura fumed, "You say _yeah_ after every other sentence you speak!"

He gave her a weird look, "No, I don't, yeah."

"Do you _hear_ yourself?!"

"Yeah."

"So you do hear it!"

"No, yeah."

"What?"

"No!"

"No?"

"Yeah!"

"… Huh?"

Deidara sighed, and forcibly pushed her out into the parking lot of the school and into the open. "Just do your job, yeah."

Sakura smirked, "Yeah?"

Death Glare.

"Okay! I'm going! Sheesh!"

The parking lot was located directly behind the gym and adjacent to the bus ramp, although a fence separated the two areas. Albeit hesitantly, Sakura moved towards the medium-sized truck labeled in big slanted red and tan letters "_Suna Clay Co." _… well that's what she though the opposite side of the truck said. The side she saw read, "Your Ad Here." Though some random juvenile had spray painted over the D and instead added two S's where it would be. So now it read a more provocative statement. Apparently, the company didn't care as much to get it repainted. That or it had happened so many times they just quit fixing it.

Suddenly, Sakura's attention was thrown as she heard a loud slamming sound. She veered her sight to the back of the truck, there she saw a rather muscular dark-haired man, opening up the metal back of the truck. Half of his face was covered by what looked like a bandage. He also wore a black tank top, which in all reality would just make him hotter by attracting the sun's heat- Wait a second! Sakura's eyes locked on his face once more. She _knew_ him!

"Zabuza!!!" She called out, cuffing her hands around her mouth and picking up her pace.

"Zabuza!" she called once more when she was nearer to the truck, he had just finished putting the hood up, and both were now bathed in shade. Much nicer than the frying concrete heat the parking lot provided.

After making sure the top was stable, by testing the supporters, he turned toward the excited pink-haired girl. "I heard you the first time." He spoke, voice indifferent but not cold.

Sakura ignored the comment; this was going to be _much_ easier than she expected! "Whatcha doing here? Working for Suna now?" she asked, geniually interested. Last she heard he was still in Kirigakure.

Hoisting himself up into the truck he shook his head, and moved into the back. "No," his voice echoed back to her, "Just doing a few odd jobs, along with my part-time."

Sakura wasn't exactly sure of what his "part-time" was, but she didn't ask. She knew it had something to do with his sword, the massive metal thing that almost decapitated her, but that was about it. Well, that's what Haku had told her. He was really the only reason that she even knew Zabuza. She had met Haku in her first year of middle school while he was in his second, but he had abruptly switched schools in the middle of her seventh grade year. The circumstances were still unknown but, she knew where ever he was, Zabuza was nearby. If she remembered correctly, he was his… apprentice? Eh, something like that.

But, speaking of him… "Where's Haku?"

She was surprised to learn that he was actually sitting in the front of the vehicle, also working.

Skipping, she re-entered the sun's rays and hopped in through the driver's side, effectively startling the male in the passenger seat. She snickered at his expression, it reminded her of his reaction when he overheard Naruto exclaiming to the rest of the group that "Sakura-chan's new friend is the sexiest thang in the entire school."

Good times, good times.

It took a moment, but when his smile came it was bright and genuine, "Sakura-chan! How have you been?" he asked, politely. See, _this_ is why all the girls in school loved Haku. She tried explaining it to Kiba, Neji, and Lee once. He was polite and remembered the important things, like people's names. If you didn't automatically crush on him, you were friends with him. Kiba had responded by claiming that "the ladies" liked being holla'd at. Neji had retorted that he did remember _important _details, though some trivial things, did not warrant his attention. And Lee had pointed at that her hair color was a obvious reminder to anyone what her name was. She had just let it go after they all agreed (shocker!) that the only reason Haku was popular was because of his femininity.

Looking at him now, she had to disagree. Whatever, Zabuza was training him in, he needed to keep it up. From just his arms, she could see he was very handsomely toned. Plus if you watched very carefully she could see the ripples his abs made in his T-shirt when he breathed. Forget about Sas-what's-his-name! Just jump what's right in front of her- MISSION! Must stay on topic!

Inwardly, Sakura locked up Inner Sakura, who had been subliminally sending her the messages that got her off track in the first place.

"I'm good! What about you, Haku! What have you been up to? Where do you go to now?!"

He chuckled at her eagerness, "I go to a school called _Suiton_ Academy. Well sort of; I only go there to sit in on exams. I'm ahead of most of the school."

'Ha! And Shika thinks _he's_ smart.'

'**Come on, he's right **_**there!**_**' **

'I thought I got rid of you.'

'**Heh. You can Never get rid of me. But Really! Just **_**look**_** at him!' **

'Haku's my _friend_. I'm not going to think anything like that about him.'

'**Too late. I already did, which means you did too!!' **

'(sigh) Look, if I take a picture of him will you go away, for say twenty minutes?'

'**Take it and I'll think about it.' **

Figuring this was the best she was going to get, she took out her special digital camera from her book bag, originally bought for the photographing of any pranks that the devilish duo may perform. A must-have for all students at her middle-school. An idea struck her. "Hey Haku? Say cheese!" she said in a rush.

The flash was a bit odd, instead of shooting a regular white color it made a white flash then a second lighter blue.

Smiling, she removed the camera from her sight. "Haku, can I have 20 pounds of clay?"

Rubbing one his eyes, Haku replied in a dazed voice, "Huh? Umm… Sure?"

Her smile widened. It worked. Her camera had been slightly altered, she had put a jutsu, a mix of ninjutsu and genjutsuin in it. The flash had a second flash in the middle of the first. It made the victim (whoever was in the picture) disoriented and confused, more so than a usual camera would, moving their thoughts of the last twenty to fourty-eight hours to the back of their mind. A little bit like a memory-suppression attack. Normally, it would have been used to escape the photographee's wrath. The duration on the jutsu gave a her a chance to run and/or hide before the victim figured that they had just been photographed and why. But, she guessed it would work on a situation like this too.

Humming to herself, she made to get out of the truck when a pissed looking Zabuza appeared at her doorway. How in the world that man knew what happened, Sakura was afraid to find out. She visibly shivered; it was scary to see an angry Zabuza. And he wasn't even _glaring_ that hard yet!

"Think again."

--

Deidara soon found himself being greeted by a glum looking pink-haired girl.

"I see your plan _failed_. Guess we do it the hard way then, yeah."

Sakura looked up, "_We_?"

Deidara did not respond he was busy messing with a random block of clay.

Sakura scowled, "You _have_ clay! You don't need more."

"I can't reuse this clay, yeah." He replied, finishing the sculpture of a small bird. He lifted his palm, and watched as it flew away into the cloud-less sky.

"What's it gonna do? Blow up?" Sakura's sardonic retort.

A loud explosion to the west caught her immediate attention. She watched in astonishment as one of the two green metal canisters exploded in a release of fire, heat, and air. Completely destroying the garbage disposals and wrecking/burning a section of fence behind it.

He watched her expression change in amusement, "Yes. Now quick, let's go to the truck while they're distracted." Sakura followed his gaze to where Zabuza and Haku were moving to explore the damage.

"_That's _what you call a 'distraction'?!"

He shrugged. "Yeah."

The two made it unseen, though Sakura did trip on a soda can on the way their that almost blew their cover, and climbed through the back.

Sakura observed her new surroundings, the area was about the size of an average bedroom just not as wide. Shelfs were connected to the longer sides and everywhere else were somewhat organized layers and stacks of air-tight boxes full of clay.

Deidara was testing the weight of the boxes, "Two of the larger boxes should suffice." he said after a while.

Sakura grumbled, of course he'd pick the front-of-the-truck-hard-to-get-boxes. Hopping over some small sized boxes on the floor, and maneuvering around a stack of medium-sized ones, Sakura made it to where she spied the first large box. She plucked it easily and tossed it back to Deidara, who tucked it under his arm. The second box took a little more time to find, and when she did it was in a very awkward place, below a stack of smaller boxes.

"Hurry up, Sakura!" an impatient voice called.

Taking her chances like in a game of Jenga, she pulled the box out, it looked like the other boxes would stay… slight miscalculation. At first the rest of the stack seemed to hold, then as one the boxes fell in on each other, crumbling the entire tower.

Stepping back, she watched as the piles casualties hit other stacks and caused them to cave as well.

Eventually she backed so far out, her back hit Deidara's chest, who was also watching, but with an almost happy fascination at her chagrin.

"Oops…"

"SA-KU-RA!!!!!!!!"

Wincing at the sound of name being yelled at that volume and tone, Sakura took a few steps towards the back of the truck, large box still in hand and peeked out. Still at the explosion site stood a murderous-looking Zabuza and a nervous Haku trying to placate him. She sent them a weary and weak smile, before ducking her head back into the temporary shelter.

Wide-eyed, she turned to Deidara who had stopped grinning. "What do we do now?"

"Run. Run like Hell."

And they did just that.

-----

nightDREAMERms: Yeah! That was incredibly fun to write! Most of this stuff just wrote itself! Oh and the Florida law is real, but it's not enforced, (though sometimes around my brother and his friends make me wish it was). And I hope everyone knows what Jenga is, it has a lot of different names. I picked this one 'cause it was the first one I played… and it was on wikipedia.

P.S. Yes I know Suiton means Water Release. I think it's a cool name for a school. _I'd_ wanna go there! R&R!

P.P.S. And thanks for the ideas ppls, some of you will be surprised to see I'm using a few! You'll know when the time comes!!


	6. Chapter 6

nightDREAMERms: Hello! Ppls! Don't got much to say… except OH YEAH!

I was in a waiting line at the mall when this random giant HUGE spider, not one of those oh that's pretty-big spiders it's those HOLY-Fing-G- is-that-thing-even-real spiders! (I'm not exaggerating! If I were to try to squash it, I would've a covered a little less than a third of it's body) **attack-charged **me and my brother! Well… actually it was going for me and I yelped/hopped out of it's path (why it was going for me, I still have no idea). Then my brother yelled "Give it what it wants!" and shoved me toward it right after I landed my side-jump, causing me to scream in panic. Being the amazing flexible dancer I am, I narrowly escaped getting thrown into the crawler by changing my direction in mid-air… and instead landed on a nearby sign. The sign then wobbled, broke into pieces, and fell, descending on the evil monster-spider. Me and my brother slowly backed away from the wreck. Then looked at each other briefly, before running "like Hell" away, with everyone in the line and in the area around staring after us.

And that is the story of the "Run. Run like Hell." line of last chapter. See, most of the stuff in my stories are from personal experience. So yes, I have very… _interesting_ things happen in my life…. WHY CAN'T IT JUST BE NORMAL! T-T

P.S. The weirdest thing about the whole event was it crawled out a Liz and Co. _mannequin_. A FREAKING MANNEQUIN!!!!!! I'd understand maybe out of fruit.. or something in Walmart or Kash n' Karry, but out of JCPenny?????!!!!!

---

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, visions, dreams, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Chapter 6:

(psycho spiders…-shiver-)

--

Sakura and Deidara narrowly escaped; Deidara shooting out random detonation-timed bombs that he told her was art.

"Art?!! You're just blowing up stuff!" she had yelled, still panting while escaping.

"Art is a Bang!" he yelled right back, over an explosion, much to Sakura's annoyance he wasn't the least bit tired.

Now, Sakura was home once again. She had been forced to take a normal city bus to get there, but had she made it there. Although on the bus ride, she had caught some perverted old man trying to look up her skirt, pretending to have dropped some item that had resided in his wallet that he fumbled with. All of which was really quite hopeless because of the tight black kapris she was obviously wearing under them. But still she _discreetly_, she had stomped on both the back of his hand and tips of his fingers with her beautiful black boots; what _else_ were boots used for?! She smirked inwardly when a squeal of pain sounded behind her followed by a delicate string of curses; outwardly, she shifted slightly in her position. If anyone noticed their little exchange, they didn't say anything; most likely this guy was a regular.

Luckily, the stop for her neighborhood was the next one and the old guy didn't have another chance for her. Not as luckily, Tenten and Hinata were both waiting in her room when she entered.

Sakura stared at them unevenly; she was _supposed_ to be doing _unfair homework_. 'Come on big brain! Cough up another excuse!!!'

"Umm… why are you guys sitting in the dark?" She was stalling. She knew; They knew. Still, Hinata got off the bed and clicked on a nearby lamp, not connected to the switch circuit, on.

"Sakura, if you were so absorbed in your so-called homework. Why are you only now arriving home _later_ than we did?" Tenten asked, her voice wasn't as accusatory as Sakura thought it's be, in actuality it sounded al lot more… curious.

Lying to her best friends. Something she really didn't like to do. Sure she had made up that excuse to the entire group before. But Tenten and Hinata were closer to her than the rest. Probably because they all lived in the same neighborhood. (Neji's not included because he's a boy and when they were little both Tenten and Sakura considered him _cootie-infected_) More so, they were the only ones that _didn't_ hurt her all those years ago on that night; the night that started it all. But still what must be done, Must be done.

"Well… actually, you guys are gonna mock me for this. But I went to catch the bus, and then remembered I didn't have the bus number. 'member, Hinata-chan we were supposed to go get it from Neji. By then all of you guys had gone. So I sat outside the office waiting for someone to help me for incredibly _long _time. Eventually, some one called me into the AP office. Once I was in there it took another twenty minutes for the _principal_ to come in, to tell me that they don't even HAVE the stupid bus records. Can you believe that?? I asked what I should do and they replied 'Take a different bus or something.' Such _nice concerned _people. At least they gave me a bit of money to pay for my public bus ride home. But tomorrow I have to pay them back. Rip-off." she managed to keep her tone annoyed very well, having had much practice in that department, due to her little group. Some of it was true and it made her story easier to tell. She even surprised herself by remembering the gender of the A.P. and the principal. Now for the big test; did they actually believe it?

"Oh. That sucks." Tenten responded, Hinata nodding her sentiments. Success!

Sakura carefully controlled her emotions so that the smile that was begging to place itself on her face was denied access. Instead she nodded her head faking a sigh, "Yep. And now I have to do stupid homework." She pulled up a swivel-chair to her desk and sat her book bag underneath it. She silently willed them to leave; if they waited to see the homework she'd exposed for not having any.

They must have somehow read a part of her mind because the second she started to rummage through her backpack they stood up and walked to the door. She did a little wave to say good bye without speaking. It was an automatic move of Working-Sakura that was really too absorbed in her work to by paying attention. Another act played marvelously. 'I should become an actor err.. actress.'

Just as Tenten was shutting the door to close, she stopped herself, "Hey Sakura, we're all thinking of going to Karaoke tomorrow. You'll make it this time, right?"

Sakura took a moment to think. Surely, the Akatsuki wouldn't give her another mission when she completed the last task. "Mmhmm, definitively." she replied.

Tenten smiled happily, before closing the door completely. Sakura waited until after she heard a second door close, indicating that they had left the house to spin herself out of the desk seat and onto her flufflicious bed. Thank god, that worked.

--

A happy Wednesday morning.

Oh my bad, that's right Mon-Thurs. are never happy mornings. Fridays just barely making the cut.

School had started on a Tuesday this year and for that Sakura was unhappy. It was almost a full week. Yet you knew next week it would be even _longer_. Sakura got herself up this morning without the help of her two minions. In fact, she beat them to the bus stop. Although Neji was already there and deflated her ego a bit, she had beaten the rest of the bus group.

Unfortunately, beating them also meant getting up earlier than she was used to. As a result, she had been quite roughly awakened by the elder Hyuuga who pulled her by the backpack strap away from her pillow… Which turned out to be stop sign, and told her to stop embarrassing herself by drooling on the pole. Yes, she had received some very interesting and mocking comments from both of her friends and the rest of the bus party for that one.

But really, who could blame her. It was way too early in the morning. Whatever happened to "I rise when the sun rises"? Now it seemed like there was some contest to see who could beat the astrological object.

She noted to herself, that her bus number was '3161' about seven times and wrote it on her hand, after triple checking. She went as far as to cross-reference with Hinata; She did not want a repeat of the public bus-incident. It was only by luck that she didn't fall asleep again on the bus ride to school. Or maybe it was because of the jokes Tenten would crack, when sitting next to her that kept her up.

Whatever it was that kept her up before wasn't helping her now. Or so she thought when the homeroom teacher decided to show up. (He hadn't yesterday.) At first, Sakura just let her elbows rest on the desk and her head rest in her upright hands. Their (meaning the whole gang…including the _couple_) homeroom teacher told them that his name was Kakashi Hatake, but to just call him Kakashi-sensei. Naruto had thought it _hilarious_ that his name could be shortened to "Kaka.". Well, actually _all_ the boys did, for they had had to smuggle their chuckles after he announced his observation. Most of the girls in the classroom just rolled their eyes.

Sakura was one of the girls who did not. She was busily working on defining his character. He seemed like the laid back type. From the way he entered the class five minutes late to the way he was sitting with his feet placed on the desk and leaning backward into his chair all the while reading an orange book. He also wore a mask that covered more than half of his face. Inner Sakura had immediately declared that by the end of the year she will have found out was under it.

'Pssh, yeah right' she had replied back, but really did want to know. She even overheard Naruto and Ino starting bet over what he was hiding. Ino had claimed he was most-likely drop-dead gorgeous. Naruto had made a face and subsequently decided that he had a humongous puss-filled wart under it. He was smacked over the head for it, but the bet had been placed nonetheless.

Sakura watched the gray-haired man carefully. After being a little spooked by the way he giggled avidly at the book he was holding, she decided that it would be okay to sleep during his extended-homeroom. Less than three seconds later her arms were parallel to her desk and her head laying on top of them, in a deep sleep.

_When Mikoto Uchiha returned the little girl to the room, it was became suddenly quiet. Mikoto disregarded this as something only children could understand and left them in the awkward silence. Sakura stared back at them for a while before slowly moving back the way she came, her eyes starting to collect tears once more as she remembered what happened. Just as she was to run back up the stairs to the safety of Itachi's room (Ironic, yes!) she backed into something. She twirled around to see another girl. She was a brunette and had to twin buns at the tops of her head; both neatly wrapped in thin green ribbon. Sakura frowned, she hadn't noticed her before. The unknown girl smiled at her and pointed toward another little girl that she had not noticed sitting a little ways away from the big group. She had big pale eyes and was currently playing with some kind of lego blocks. The first girl motioned for Sakura to follow her to them, "Come on! Let's go play with Hinata-chan!" Sakura hesitantly stared at the hand offered to her. This girl didn't look like she'd mean. But then again, the other children didn't either and look where _that _got her. Putting up a brave front she took the hand and almost lost her balance as she was tugged toward the lego castle. _

_Suddenly, the room wasn't so quiet anymore. Sound resumed and people became active again. The girls started to build a miniature wall around them. The Hinata girl seemed to be really shy but was at the same time very nice and generous enough to let them use her blocks to make a bigger wall to block them from the rest of the room's kids. Eventually, the brunette turned to her as Sakura was reinforcing the east wall. "My names Tenten, what's your's?" _

_Sakura. Yes, that was it. _

_Sakura-chan. Yeah, I guess you could call it that too. _

_Sa-ku-ra-Chan! ..Yeah? _

"SAKURA-CHAN!!!"

"YEAH!" Sakura woke up in a started yell, causing the rest of the class to erupt in laughter.

"Good morning!" A voice cheerfully chirped to her left. Sakura turned her head towards the source and was surprised to see Kakashi-sensei squatting by her desk his showing eye turned upward to symbolize a smile.

The giggles started up again, and Sakura's cheeks burned in embarrassment. She was abruptly 'saved by the bell' and quickly left the room dragging a still laughing Tenten and giggling Hinata with her. As she left she could've sworn she felt eyes follow her.

--

P.E. was… interesting. There was Gai, who Tenten apparently already knew, because he was Lee's personal trainer… well it was really more like "Lee is a Gai-mini" she said. It turned out that although Kakashi was her homeroom teacher he was in actuality a P.E. teacher. However, she didn't find out how he acted as an real teacher; she was placed in Gai's class not his.

Because it was first period and people were still groggy, Sakura had _hoped_ that maybe he'd go easy on them. Wrong! If anything, Gai made them work harder, because there muscles weren't as "warmed up" as the other students would be from running around school all day. By the time "warm up" period was over, Sakura was gasping for breath and afraid she might pass out. To think Lee had to put up with this man all day, and worse he _enjoyed_ it. Inner Sakura commented that Lee was most likely masochistic. Sakura ignored her for the rest of the period.

Second period was better, she had biology with Kurenai-sensei. Kurenai-sensei seemed like someone who she could look up to, with the way she used humor in her lesson yet at the same time taught well enough that Sakura could actually learn something in the class. Not only that but she received Sakura-bonus-personality-points for blandly requesting that Kiba stop staring at her chest in the middle of a speech about what they would be learning that year. Having been caught he turned beat red ; She and Hinata sent each other a look before muffling their snickers.

Third period was as boring as watching a fly buzz around in front of you before following down dead by your feet. No. Sakura _wished_ something like that would happen, this was _torture_. Genma-sensei was her and Ino's math teacher. However he seemed to have as much interest in the subject as the rest of the class did. Zero. So he just put up pre-printed sheets on the screen and twirled a senbon in his seat as the rest of the class copied the notes from the overhead.

Fourth and Fifth period were just plain _weird. _

Asuma-sensei was their health teacher; however, all during class he smoked cigarettes. Once he even paused to blow a puff of it out the window! Wasn't he just contradicting what he was teaching? Was smoking even _allowed_ on school grounds? When questioned about his odd behavior he had replied unabashed, "Because I'm the teacher and you're not. End discussion." But that was no where near as strange as History was.

That teacher was a sadistic. That was all there was to it. Anko-sensei had purple hair spiked up in the back and devilish violet eyes to match. She was explained the different wars and periods of time, she had a giddy undertone in her voice and a big smile on her face. Even when speaking of the most tragic of events. Around her room, torture devices and weapons were displayed. Armor from before the renaissance period, worn maps of planned attacks, massive samurai swords, shields, and even a guillotine. There was still a bit of rusted blood splattered on the rim of the blade; Sakura thought she would puke then and there. Tenten would've liked the classroom if she was taking the class, she decided later.

--

Finally, lunch arrived and Sakura met with her table, this time not as surprised to see the red-head and _him_ sharing a seat. Dimly, she wondered if eventually that got uncomfortable. Maybe she was cutting off his blood circulation and he'd push her off. Though she doubted it would really happen, this thought kept her quite amused for a while. Ino caught the happy smile she sent to Karin as she was still thinking about it and mistook it for her accepting the couple.

"See! Karin's not that bad! She's the one who suggested to Karaoke today, you know? You are coming right?" Ino asked her.

Sakura nodded absently, "The boys are coming too aren't they?"

This was met with a group of angry grunts.

Ino glared at the group, "Yes, they're coming and they all have to sing at

least _one_ song."

"WHAT Ino! That's Not Fair!" Chouji moaned, mouth half-way filled with food. This was followed by another group of agreements to his statement. Even Sasuk- err.. _He_ looked away from Karin for a moment to glare at the blonde. Really, what was their problem with singing anyways? …Must be a testosterone deficiency thing.

Lee however had other ideas. "Ah! What a wonderful display of youthfulness!" he announced loudly, striking a pose.

Shino tried to slowly back away from the table but unfortunately for him, Hinata to his right held onto his hood and smiled mischievously, surprising most. "Na ah! You're coming too! I've been waited a _long_ time for this." He looked blankly at her, while the rest of the table was hopelessly confused, Sakura included.

As if reading through his dark shade to his mind she answered his silent retort, "You _do_ have an amazing voice Shino! Time to show it off." It was really quite ironic, little shy Hinata telling Shino it's time to "show off". But Hinata was completely serious. It made her wonder what his voice _did_ sound like… And how she even knew what it sounded in the _first_ place. Hinata was hiding something, she normally told the girl's of the group everything.

Shino was silent for a long moment, then he swerved his head to meet Sakura's glance, startling her. "I'll sing… if Sakura-san sings."

'What? Why ME?!' Sakura whined inwardly.

Ever since, a few years ago. Sakura had stopped singing in Karaoke. Most if not all of her friends had absolutely no idea. She herself didn't know why she stopped, it wasn't because she was bad at it or anything. But one day singing in front of a crowd of people didn't seem as appealing as it used to be. Inner Sakura thought it was a subconscious reaction to what happened a little while back. It was nothing important really, she had just wanted to sing her favorite song, (it was still her favorite) but just couldn't hit the correct note. She had been walking down a street to her house back from school singing the same song, when she passed by a group of older teens. They all quieted down as Sakura walked past. Their weird action sparked her curiosity. Instead of walking all the way to her own home, she hid behind a nearby house. As soon as they thought she was gone they began to ridicule her voice. Linking it to a dieing seal an such. One even claimed that his ears were bleeding and was telling them to look at his hand. Her throat ran dry, but she didn't tear up. It was a stupid reason to not sing publicly again… but it still really bugged her. She wondered if maybe that's what _everyone_ thought of her singing behind her back, but didn't want to hurt her feelings. Inner's sentiments were that and I quote, "She needed to forget those ftards and sing her a off."

Times like that, made Sakura feel lucky to have her Inner-self. Though normally, it was the exact opposite.

"I'll do it." Sakura agreed, surprising Shino, and pretty much everyone else at the table who thought she was officially done with Karaoke. Ino, Tenten, and Hinata sent her appraising looks. It really was about time she took Inner Sakura's advice, besides how could she not with the bonus of maybe seeing Shino's face.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, ending the rein of incredulous looks Sakura received.

"Since Lee, Shino, and Sakura agreed to sing, the rest of you slobs have to too!" Ino announced smiling, once more causing another uproar.

Sakura smirked at the devastated boy's faces distantly wondering how and if Karin could sing… she had to have suggested it for a reason.

On a different note, she _still_ felt the eyes boring holes into the back of her head.

--

Sixth and seventh period passed quickly for the green-eyed girl. Her Spanish teacher Yume-sensei, had traveled around the world and knew several languages and dialects, including French, German, Polish, and Korean. She spent the class telling stories of her voyages and Sakura found herself drawn into them, efficiently helping her ignore a certain red-eyed girl's presence.

Seventh period had Ebisu-sensei. His rules were strict though his lessons were not. Truthfully, Sakura didn't really have an opinion of him, he was just a teacher. Though later that opinion would change completely.

At the last bell, Ebisu-sensei dismissed the class. Just as before, she and Hinata walked downstairs to collect Tenten and then to the stairs opposite the gymnasium.

This time the rest of the group's exit was less enthusiastic and more of a string of students rather then a random large bulge but still very cheerful.

"Okay, so whose ride are we using?" Ino asked, looking between the Hyuuga's and _hi- _Sasuke. Sakura decided to end that _him_ thing then and there, not only was it annoying, but it gave '_him_' power.

Neji looked to Sasuke, standing with his arm wrapped around Karin (Bleh!), who sent back the same look. Something Sakura would never fully understand. The Neji-Sasuke language. She could sometimes decipher bits and pieces of their unspoken conversation but she more of Sasuke-ese than a Neji-ese. The same went for Tenten and Hinata but backwards.

"His." Neji responded after a little debate. It was always up to the Hyuuga or Uchiha to haul around the group. They had the money, everyone knew it, everyone was used to it, no one was really offended by it.

Sasuke tched annoyed, but turned to lead the group out anyways. Sakura was about to remark to Hinata about the Shino-event when the inevitable happened-

Her ring vibrated.

Her heart sunk. Why now? She was really looking forward to this, not only because of Shino but for herself.

She stopped walking, and Hinata stopped and turned as well, she was confused as to why Sakura suddenly stopped herself. That made Neji stop, and eventually the whole group slowed, though most didn't know why.

Sakura looked down, a bit guilty at ruining a lot of people's fun, "Sorry, you guys."

They looked on confused, "Sorry 'bout what, Sakura-san?" Lee asked.

She looked around once again, to see the same alley she had met Deidara at for the first task, occupied by another red and black cloak. "I… can't go."

Ino looked at her incredulously, not a good incredulously this time, 'What do you mean, you 'can't go'. You _have_ to! So we can all hear Shino sing!" Many people seconded her, Hinata for once, being the loudest. Shino however, perked up and sent her a look that said "Please, PLEASE Go!"

She began backing away, "I'm sorry guys… I have to pay back the office… and umm…other stuff…-"

'**Other stuff? That's the best you can come up with!' **

'Yes, as a matter of fact it is!'

"-So I'll just see you guys tomorrow." She turned and began to walk toward the buses.

She didn't have to turn around to feel the disappointed looks many of directed toward her.

"…Since Sakura's not singing. Then the rest of us don't either!" Kiba randomly proclaimed, and taking the unwanted attention away from her.

This was followed by joyous shouts (males) and disagreements (females) as the group made their way to the gates.

Sakura never saw the backwards glance that Karin gave her or the frown marring her face.

--

"Okay, I'm here. What's your task." Sakura asked, unemotionally.

"You are to meet me at the at the outside Akatsuki headquarters tomorrow during third lunch."

Sakura blinked, unsure if she heard right, "What?"

"I don't repeat myself, girl."

Sakura shook her head as if ridding herself of any other thoughts, "You mean, I'm not doing your task, today; right now! I'm doing it _tomorrow?!_"

"Hn."

Anger burned into her cheeks dying them red, "You could've told me that in the morning!!!!"

"Hn. It was much easier for me to tell you now."

Sakura glared at him and crossed her arms tightly as he walked away from her, cloak bellowing behind more menacingly than it did for the other Akatsuki members.

It was decided then and there.

Sakura Haruno _hated_ all Uchihas.

--

nightDREAMERms: Pretty good, length-wise chapter. Plot development and blah blah blah. All I can tell you is the actual task starts tomorrow! (You better already know who it's for! If not _think_ about it) Yeahes for me! I have officially completed my list of tasks. Of course, the basic sums of them were already written down by the time the chapter where the tasks were introduced was uploaded. But I finished writing the more major dialogue of the tasks that help turn Sakura into a real Akatsuki! XD

Hmm… now that I think about it, I'll need to figure out some realistic yet not cliché kanji for her Akatsuki ring… that is of course if she actually passes all of the tasks. (Heh heh, you thought you had a mini-spoiler but you _don't_!)


	7. Chapter 7

nightDREAMERms: The chapter where Itachi's Task _actually_ begins. Lol. Now let's see… do I have another anecdote about myself to tell you that helped inspire this story recently…. YEAH I DO!!!

--

Another Glimpse into the life of nightDREAMERms:

Okay so it's about 1 o' clock at night when all of the sudden I hear my mom yelling for me and my brother. I wasn't exactly asleep so I run upfront to see what the problem is. I discover that my mom is near the garage door looking out the peephole. I start to speak but she hushes me and waves me forward. I do what she says then obediently look through the peephole. There I see … absolutely nothing. I look to her and ask quietly, "What?" She then tells me that she saw something, like a rat outside when she was trying to pack her computer and work-stuff into our car. My brother shows up a little later and he and I get a flashlight for my mom who stands at the doorway and searches the garage with it. After a while the anticipation of the whole event dies away from me and I get _really _bored. My brother is arguing with my mom on whether or not he would sneak around the car and look out the window from the inside it the car (He wants her to do it, and she's saying he suggested it, he should do it.) By then, I'm fed up at looking over their shoulders and bravely offer to search the garage for them. They agree quickly, and give me the flashlight while they stay safely in the house (In my mind…err.. actually I muttered this out loud: Such babies.) I kick a random box just to see if they'd jump. They did. I snickered. I searched the entire garage and find nothing. By the time I've thoroughly searched it my brother gets up his "courage" to step outside too with me (In my mind: Took ya long enough). He retraces my steps and we find nothing. My mom pleads that she wasn't imagining things but after a while we just give up and leave after putting the stuff in the car.

Less than 15 minutes later my mom yells again but this time only I hear her. I reluctantly look out the peephole to find… wow, there really _is_ something out there. How in the world we missed it? No clue. It's impossible to discern what it was in the dark. And whenever somebody opened the door it'd run away. My mom thought it was something without a tail or a squirrel. My brother (he saw it after I went to _get him; _he was busy playing on WiFi) thought it was a fat rat. I thought it was a bunny(-insert standard brother mocking here-). Again, we give up and "go to bed" which for me went staying up all night on the computer.

Just as I'm about to actually go to bed (6 o' clock nearing 7), my brother runs in and says mom's calling dad so he can come over and kill the "rat" which at that point I'm still convinced is a rabbit. Unable to sleep (I slept the whole day before), I start my Assigned summer reading (Late? Yes! Lazy? Exactly why.). I'm halfway through the first chapter when my brother comes back in shouting that dad's found it. I happily tune him out until he mentions that dad said it was a raccoon. Interested at this new development, I shoot out of bed and out to the garage. My mom and brother are again standing at the door way and my dad has the garage up and is poking at something in the corner. My mom grimaces at my attire, but let's me go outside anyways. Once I'm around the car I ask my dad where it is. He says it's over there and that it's a _baby_. My automatic reflex was to awe. Because, COME ON, It's a little Baby animal! And I do as my reflex tells me to as I see the a tiny little body and a tail. Then all of the sudden it turns, jumps over my dads stick and runs pass him- straight to me.

Now the thing to remember here is that (1.) I'm a teenage girl. (2.) I am currently wearing my blanket as a robe with nothing underneath it but bra and underwear; the bra straps and my back being exposed to the air. And have to keep fighting to keep it from dropping onto to the floor. (3.) I'm…pmsing. (4.) I'm bare-foot. (5.) Some random living-thing just jumped at me from nowhere and has it's sharp teeth bared, not necessarily at _me_, but bared nonetheless.

So in light of all those _lovely_ things, I jump backward and yelp. Moving all the way back to the doorway to keep from being bitten. Eventually it somehow leaves the garage without my dad getting to it; good for it, cause if he did I doubt it'd be alive.

Then, when we're all outside in my front lawn watching the little thing trot away my mom suddenly turns to my dad and I.

Mom: That's not a raccoon. It's a _possum. _

Me/Dad: …Whatever.

--

Hmmm… would a possum be closer to a rat or a bunny… -shrugs- Ah well, onto the story!!

--

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Late Revenge: Chapter Seven

--

_Task Two: Steal Hatake's mask and take pictures as evidence. Return these pictures to the official member to be used at his discretion. _

"Pft, Blackmail."

_Infiltrators: Sakura Haruno and Itachi Uchiha _

"Bleh!"

_Details_: _During Hatake's lunch period, enter his morning home-room classroom. File's information reports that he eats here and this is the most-likely chance of catching him already with his mask down. Cast a medium-level genjutsu that will cause Hatake to lose consciousness. From there, the unofficial member will do as instructed. The same consequences for failure as last task still reside. _

"Shessh, can you be any_more_ melodramatic."

"Sakura, I'm really starting to think you're sick… or losing it."

Sakura jumped and looked over to the blonde who had suddenly appeared beside her. "What the- Ino? Where'd _you_ come from?!"

This was her daily fifth-period-to-lunch solo walk. Seeing as that no one walked with her, she had chosen to look over her task list to see if Deidara had checked her off (She didn't remember him even touching the paper after the mission and she certainly hadn't given it to him). Looking at the front cover her eyes immediately locked onto the green writing that interrupted the following red. The entire "Task One" section was now light green instead of the dark ruby it used to be. She figured that this would happen every time she completed a task until the whole sheet was green. While observing the rest of the packet to look for anymore changes, she flipped to the end and found out that (-gasp-) Itachi had used his chakra to unlock the task during their last meeting. She hadn't thought she was speaking _out loud _when making her comments on it.

Ino shrugged and kept the leisurely pace the pink haired girl had set, "Ebisu-sensei kept me after class. Apparently, my writing skills weren't 'up-to-scale' "

Sakura, carefully curved the conversation away from the list in her hand, "Why? What did you do?" If Sakura remembered correctly, all they had to do was a four-paragraph essay about what they did over the summer. The usual and somewhat easy writing prompt that she had received almost every year of her schooling life.

Ino blushed a bit and whipped out a wrinkled piece of paper, " I sorta didn't use proper grammar… or spelling…"

Sakura glanced it over and rolled her eyes at her friend, "Ino… you used _text_ language for this whole thing." her eyes trailed until reaching the bottom. She handed it back to her. "Not to mention it's only half-a-page long. No _wonder_ he kept you after." she muttered the last part more to herself, but Ino still heard it.

Ino crossed her arms. "Well _excuse_ me for having a life. I didn't have _time_ to do that report last night! I made _this _thismorning in the library before homeroom."

"And what could _possibly_ have kept you up all night?" Sakura retorted then grimaced, remembering what she had been left out of. Stupid Uchihas and their stupid arrogance.

Ino's attitude, on the other hand, brightened significantly, "Sakura you _really_ should have came! Not only did Shino sing but we saw his Face! His voice is like an _angel, _by the way!! He only sang one song, but it was so.. so… you had to have been there to understand! And when he finished he shifted his glasses a bit and I saw his eyes. Sakura you won't believe it, he has to have the _hottest_ most _bish, _mesmerizing eyes on the entire planet! Defined dark-blue with flakes of violet encrusted in them. Who would of thought our little Bug-boy was such a … a … GUY!!" she exclaimed, looking forward as she was explaining. Her head was tilted a bit as if she were speaking to the heavens and a red tint slowly made it's way across her face.

By now, Sakura was seething with raw jealousy. She _should have_ been there. She had waited, what _Years?! _for the moment to see what Shino really looked like, but no. She didn't get to.

Her fire of Uchiha-hate had been reignited. He'd pay. He'd pay _dearly_.

"-and then Akamaru got loose and Kiba had to stop mid-lyric and chase him away from Karin's- BILLBOARD BROW! Are you even listening?" A manicured hand waved in front of her face.

She slapped it away, "Yes! Akamaru was attacking Karin." she replied seriously.

Ino sighed but a little bit of laughter was also let out, "No, Akamaru was attacking Karin's _hotdog_."

"Yeah, that's what I said." Sakura replied, looking around the lunch room. The lines were about double the size they normally were when she got there, but that was most likely because Ino had slowed her down. It didn't matter though, it wasn't like she was actually _eating_ lunch or anything. Back in the deep confounds of her mind she wondered if skipping all these meals would cause her problems, health-wise. (She had so far skipped, Tuesday's lunch and dinner, Wednesday's dinner (she didn't feel like eating anything then) and now Thursday's lunch.)

Soon she spotted the exit that she took the first day of school after becoming infuriated with the very girl she was walking with now. She hadn't expected to meet up with Ino and had planned on just not showing up for lunch. Looks like she needed a change of plans. Oh well, time for Sakura-the-actress. Lights. Camera. Action.

Sakura suddenly stopped mid-step, tapped her forehead and groaned,

"Oh crap. Ino, I just remembered!"

Ino stopped walking and twisted her head behind her, frowning, "What's wrong, Sakura?"

"Your talk about forgetting to do your report reminded me! I didn't do my Spanish worksheets!" she whined, letting her shoulders droop.

Ino blinked, "Oh, that's no problem! I have the worksheets with me. You can just copy mine!" she answered, starting to dig through her book bag.

Inwardly, Sakura moaned. Why? Why today of all days did Ino decide to be nice to her! Why couldn't she just mock her for a while like normal and let her go?!

Sakura kept up the fake persona and smiled, "Oh really? Thanks! I- wait a second." she sent Ino a sly yet annoyed look and raised an eyebrow, "Did you do a "half-job" of it in the library like you did with English?"

'_Please! _Say you did!'

Ino laughed nervously, stopped her actions and set her book bag back behind her, indicating that she had been right on the money.

Sakura smiled politely again. She took a small step backwards, and shook her head. "No thanks, Ino. I'd rather take my _own _chances."

Ino just smiled and nodded her understanding before moving to join the now-filled table.

Sakura turned away bur the smile still remained on her face. She really _should_ become an actress.

--

"DODODO!" The girl crept along the side of a hallway wall until she was met with a closed door. The hum of chatter pulsing through it.

"DoDOdo!" Carefully she bent her legs, and crab-walked along the side, making sure her hair wasn't able to be seen in the window.

"Dododo!" She silently ran to the next door way. This one wide open.

"Do do!" She did a quick frontal roll past the opening.

"Daa Da Daada! Daa Da Daada-" She cut herself off as she peeked around the corner. She then pulled herself back against the wall, and motioned with her hand a quick 'One, two, three, Go!' for him to follow.

Itachi just stared at her.

Forehead-vein throbbing mildly. His left eye itched to twitch very _very_ badly, but he didn't let it. What was _wrong_ with this girl. "What. are you _doing_?"

"Singing!" she answered, so sweetly it nearly burnt his eardrums.

"Singing _what_?" He had never once in his life heard something so horribly out of tune. Not even Sound's entire advanced academy could rival _this_.

She rolled her eyes and motioned for him to come once more, which he did, but not because she instructed to him to nor in the ridiculous manner she had. "It's Mission Impossible, duh."

He almost paused, actually he did, but no one would have been able to tell if they caught it on camera and sent it in slow motion. She had systematically warped and disfigured a _classic_ to the point where it could nor longer be distinguished or identified.

New recruits never ceased to annoy him.

--

"Well Stop." He ordered her.

Sakura only giggled and happily shifted her weight from side to side, "Sorry! Can't help it! This reminds me of it so much!"

It had taken a her a while but she had finally found a way to annoy the elder Uchiha. (Step One in "Getting Back Itachi" plan) Not to say Uchiha's were hard to annoy. On the contrary, even breathing while they read PO'd them. The trick was to annoy them _so_ bad that they outwardly showed their emotions. A very hard thing to do as Uchiha's were masters of the emotionless-mask™. She thought long and hard of all the things that used to annoy Sasuke out of his mind while they were together. Suddenly it hit her:

Being herself.

Being herself when she was _hyper_.

It was wonderful! Not only was it fun for her and horrid for him, she didn't even have to fake it that badly, the mission itself was appeasing Inner Sakura and giving her a happiness boost. Though the singing out of tune thing had been her own special little addition.

She kept along with her happy act, singing a tad softer but still extremely off-key. She even darted across the hall once or twice for good measure. She could practically feel the dark aura Itachi was radiating to her and it managed to make a chill run down her spine. Though it affected her in the opposite way it was intended to and made her turn her small hop to an all out skip, now knowing that her plan actually _was_ working.

When the pair reached the outside of her homeroom she dropped her antics. This still _was_ a serious mission and she still needed to pass the task.

She turned her head back towards him and he almost looked surprised at her sudden change in demeanor. Key word- Almost. Uchiha's don't let their guard drop that quickly.

He muttered something under his breath and did a few hand signs… or it _looked_ like a couple of hand signs. He did them so fast Sakura's eyes couldn't catch or follow them.

He paused and looked at her once then to the door and then back to her before looking away and leaning his back against a wall. Successfully putting up the look that he was no way connected to her in anyway, business or otherwise. What was with that pose _anyways_ always leaning against something. Sakura didn't have time to think about it and quickly let the thoughts go before walking through the doorway.

It was a bit odd being in the classroom at this hour. She was used to it being dark and shaded, as it was in the early-morning time of his homeroom. Not this sun-lit area. The room's walls were much more visible and she saw there were several articles of world events around the room. This puzzled Sakura for a moment before she realized that Kakashi-sensei was a P.E. teacher and this wasn't _really_ his classroom, they only borrowed it during the twilight hours. Most likely, the person this classroom _actually_ belonged to was downstairs in the Teacher's Lounge eating their lunch with the rest of this hallway's teachers. Unlike Kakashi-sensei, who didn't want nor would let anyone to see his face.

His name reminded her of his presence in the room and her heart skipped a beat, then settled back down to normal when she saw him slumped over form sitting in his desk.

She walked over and quietly took out her special digital-cam from the designer bag Ino and Hinata had forced her to buy. Yes, that's right _forced_. They kidnapped her away from Tenten who would of most likely been head set against the entire idea and dragged her to the mall to buy it. Sakura thought it was a tad too… gaudy. But it was comfortable though and made carrying her valuables a lot easier.

As she stood over his sleeping figure and moved to pull his head upward, the little voice in the back of her head was screamed for her to stop. That this was wrong and most likely against school rules. However, even louder was Inner Sakura who was telling her satisfy her curiosity. If she didn't do this then all of the clay incident would be in vain.

'Sorry Kakashi-sensei.' she whispered inwardly and spinned his chair around so that he faced her and was rewarded with a "Woop!" from her Innerself and a frustrated sigh from her conscious.

She lifted the head up and tossed it backward to discover…

He _still_ had his mask on.

'What the? Then- How does he eat?'

'_**Through **_**the mask? I don't know! Stop asking me questions!' **

Sakura just shook the thoughts away and placed her hand on the side of the mask ready to whip it clean off, when-

Another hand stopped hers.

Sakura's entire face faulted and she stumbled backward, though that only served to make her knock the back of her knees into nearby low set stool, throwing her even _more _off-balance and sending her forward into the chair, as she stared face to face with a very awake and conscious, grinning Kakashi.

"You're awake?" she managed to mumble out in a weak voice. What happened to the supposed _jutsu_ that sent him into the joyful land of unconsciousness?!

'_**Ooh! **_**You're in **_**trouble!!!**_**' **Inner Sakura sung a lot more cheerfully than Sakura would've liked.

'Shut up!'

He nodded and moved her hand away and down to her side. It was only then as she watched her hand move that she noticed the position she was in.

She was sitting frontward, legs spread wide open,… in the lap of her homeroom teacher. Their faces were inches apart, noses barely touching. One of his hands was on her small of her back keeping her steady and the other was still on her's and resting near her thigh. Her cheeks felt that familiar tingling sensation that she loathed so much and she bent her head down hoping to hide the coming blush. Whether it was from getting caught in the act or of the suggestiveness of the pose, Sakura didn't know.

What if someone came in and saw them? Was the first question that passed through her mind. Her heart rate sped. But was quickly pacified by the remembrance of Itachi's position outside. She calmed down a bit. Yeah he'd keep everyone away. He'd- NO! Who was she kidding! If Itachi knew he'd more likely drag in _more_ people than keep them from entering. Since when did Uchihas try to _prevent_ humilation? Not to mention the way she had purposely drove him.

'Please! I promise I'll never _ever try _to annoy him again. If Itachi doesn't let anyone come in! I SWEAR!!!' she willed. 'I'll... even buy him Icecream!!!' she added as an afterthought as if fate could be persuaded by sweets.

Kakashi was unaware of her current devastation, or if he did he thought it funny and instead moved his hand away from hers and to his mask. "Oh! You wanted to see what's under my mask? Why didn't you just ask?"

Sakura's thoughts were torn away from her silent pleading to look up at her teacher who hooked an index finger underneath the black mesh material.

Slowly he peeled it off-

She positioned her camera.

-To reveal-

"Another mask!" he exclaimed cheerfully.

Sakura stared and blinked.

Bomb drops in 3... 2.….1.. "WHATT?!"

Any embarrassment-pink that was previously written on her face was abruptly erased and replaced by anger-red.

She shifted back and then threw her whole body weight forward spinning the chair and causing it to bounce a little as she lunged for the mask.

"What do you mean a second mask?! You're giving me a clear shot of your face whether you like it or not!" she screamed and made a quick grab for his head. He quickly slid to the side, evading her attack.

"Sakura! You can get suspended for violating a teacher!" he responded gruffly, now using both hands to hold hers away from him, obviously he had underestimated her strength and will.

"I Don't CARE!" she yelled back, grinding against him harshly seeing as she couldn't use her arms, though she was pulling against them to.

--

Outside the rather noisy room Itachi was watching the odd scene of teacher between student with amusement and consideration.

Unknown to Sakura, he had been watching ever since she entered into the room. He saw her hesitate, her clumsiness and her embarrassment at finding out that Hatake was awake. He hadn't expected the man to dispel his just that quickly. _Really _he _hadn't_. But it did add to his enjoyment factor; seeing her mortification.

Her sudden outburst however created a controversy inside him. On one hand she released all her emotions at once and anger most likely marred her judgment, making her forget and ignore the consequences of her actions. An obvious and clear weakness.

However, at the same time this release of emotions let out 'determination' and through away 'indecision' allowing her to properly use this determination to-

"AH HA!" A voice (louder than before) and flash (the presence of a hidden jutsu) broke through his musings. He focused his eyes to see the pink-haired girl standing up triumphantly in front of a dazed Hatake. She was flaunting and waving the black material of the mask in the air as if it were a trophy.

-successfully complete the task. 'Potential. Definite potential.' He decided, unknowingly confirming a statement made earlier by Koichi.

--

Sakura smiled happily as Inner Sakura congratulated her on her victory. She was pretty sure her _actual _conscious was drowning at this moment, but she really couldn't care less.

She glanced over to the still dazed Kakashi-sensei. Ino, _definitely _won that bet. Sakura decided that he most likely only wore a mask to get away from screaming fan girls. He was, as Ino would say "_bish_" and how Inner Sakura would say, _"FINE!!!!" _His mismatched eyes, one dark ruby… sort of like a Uchiha's and the other that usually showed now glittered more of a silver than the dark color she was accustomed to, which would normally be a slight put-off only managed to enhance his face that was already almost inhumanly handsome-

'STOP! He's your _teacher_ for heaven's sake!_' _Oh, apparently her conscious still had a little fight left in her.

'**Your incredibly **_**hot**_** teacher that you practically gave a-' **

'Don't you dare even _think _of finishing that.' This time it was Sakura herself who cut Inner off.

But still she'd have to ask for copies of the picture she took… or better yet... She pocketed the soft material.

As she stepped back out of the room she thought of Ino's excited and exuberant tale of Karaoke night.

'They got to see Shino's face and hear him sing, I got to see _Kakashi's _face and keep _his_ mask, plus take pics… fair enough.' With that she closed the door with a soft click behind her.

--

nightDREAMERms: And now you're all gonna whine at me for stopping it here. But XP that's exactly what I'm doing!! Hehe! REVIEW! I' nightDREAMERms, command you to!

P.S. Any ppls out there that also read NSS, know that (1) I do have the next chappie all typed up and (2) being crappy and won't let me upload it. T-T Although for some reason it let me upload _this_ one. So unfair!

P.P.S. Kayla... don't kill me for next chapter. I know you'll want to. -gulp-


	8. Chapter 8

nightDREAMERms: What can I say? I love this story to death. A lil' too much actually so I've limited myself to updating only when I can update NSS at the same time. If not, then I'll probably spend all my time solely working on this. No big intro today (I can _hear _you all inwardly thanking the heavens, it's not very nice.) So, umm.. Disclaimer, since I've never actually did this in this story before… I think.

DISCLAIMER: I own everything, the characters, the plot, the scenes. Everything. All mine.

Kishimoto/Bandai/Other-ppls: -takes off safety on gun- Let's try that again shall we?

Me: -gulp- I OWN NOTHING!!!

--

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Late Revenge: Chapter Eight

--

It came to Sakura like a epiphany.

Itachi Uchiha was _drop-__**dead**_ gorgeous.

Not even in that, he's Sasuke grown-up way. But in a way that was that only his, only Itachi's. That thought in itself surprised her.

Inner Sakura told her that she hadn't noticed before because he always had his stupid cloak zipped up all the way covering the bottom half of his face. That _and_ she had been blinded by rage. And trust her, Rage was not Pretty.

But now…

She watched the scene in front of her with head cocked slightly to the left with wide-eyes unable to look away, afraid she might miss something possibly life-changing. She was one hundred-percent sure that there was drool sprouting from the right corner of her mouth but she was too… paralyzed to do anything about it.

She had kept her word; she promised she'd buy Itachi ice cream if he didn't allow anyone to come in and he didn't. However, she _hadn't_ expected for him to actually _accept_ said treat. Sasuke always said he despised sweets and declined whenever she asked if he wanted some of her dessert and such. And Sakura figured that it probably ran in the family as did the attitude, hair, eyes, etc.

Oh, how _wrong _she was.

Sakura watched avidly as he took another lick of the delicious vanilla treat. He did it slow and deliberate as if savoring the taste, curling his tongue. Then licked his perfect lips before moving for another taste.

This kind of torture _had_ to be illegal.

…

Or at least X-rated.

They both were placed outside the western lunchroom doors, diagonally across from the snack and soda machines, sitting on the metal bench-and-table there.

Well _she_ was sitting at the table. He was propped on the side, one leg on the ground, the other on the bench part of the table. One arm was horizontally draped across his high-positioned knee with the other vertically on top of it, his violet-nail-painted hand holding the ice-cream level with his mouth. His cloak had been unzipped down to his mid-stomach, revealing a pitch black T-shirt underneath that didn't exactly… hide anything or leave anything for the imagination. Not that it should or needed to; The almost skin-tight shirt did _better _than anything she could've came up with and _more._ Not that she had been looking… or fantasizing… or anything…

…

…

much.

He ate the treat expressionlessly, though judging by the odd glitter in his eye he _really_ liked the flavor vanilla.

All in all, Sakura had to lock her legs and feet under the metal bars supporting the table. She didn't trust herself not to jump him.

He was just about to take another lick of said ice-cream when he stopped in mid-air. Sakura's face for the nth time that day turned to shade that matched her hair. Stupid, stomach. Yep, that's right her stomach had decided to growl, randomly and loudly. She was regretting skipping out on breakfast everyday.

He looked over to her, as if just noticing her stare and looked down at his own treat before wordlessly offering it to her, quirking an eyebrow.

Sakura blinked, then stared from him to his vanilla cone and back, truly flabbergasted and unable to process the gesture.

Who in the world is this person and what had he done with her soon-to-be teammate? What happened to the Itachi Uchiha who didn't care about other's needs and thought of her as an overactive, hyper, annoying, child?

It took her a moment to decide between watching him eat more of the ice cream or eating it herself (Hard decision). In the end her tummy won and Sakura nodded while reaching her hand out to grab the cone. Suddenly he pulled it back out of her reach and motioned to the orange and yellow snack machine with the ice cream cone, before going back to eating his own food. It was the cold, unfeeling, "Get your own." in Itachi language.

Ah. There was the Uchiha she had come to know and -coughHatecoughDespisecough- _love_.

The stinkin' teaser.

The small interruption did serve to knock Sakura out of her predatory gaze (plus _discreetly _wipe off the saliva from her lip) and allowed her to remember her current circumstances. It was only a few minutes after they'd left Kakashi's room… which meant that he should have "woken up" by now.

Crap.

No doubt, the second he did he'd come after her. She wouldn't blame him either. But she really didn't want detention for this… or suspension. Life was hard enough with just the stupid tasks to deal with.

What would she say? What if they questioned her reasons?

"I just wanted to see _really _badly?… No that wouldn't work. Everyone wants to know what's under that mask, but nobody else **forcibly pulled it from his face**. I'm _so _dead... Maybe… maybe, I can say Akatuski made me do it! Yeah, they seem to have a bad rep here anyways. And it's not like I'd be actually _lying_ or anything."

She felt eyes on her back and immediately stopped her pace, that she had started to on automatic reflex. She turned behind her to see that Itachi had stopped being so engrossed in his vanilla-flavored ice to watch her talk and walk back and forth with a bemused expression on his face.

"What are you looking at?!" she snapped, this was all his fault anyways! And whatever happened to Uchiha expressionless mask™?

His lips formed an devilious smirk before he returned to his sweets. Right, Uchiha's were allowed to smirk at anything and everything suffering. She forgot.

She sighed and walked over to the vending machines but chose a Sprite from the soda machine instead of a food item. She put in her change, pushed in the desired number and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

GOSH! What was taking it so freaking long?

Sakura glared as the little Sprite icon turned red.

"What the? Where's my soda?" If the machine had just run out it meant she had chosen the last one, but nothing came out. She looked down at the can delivery slot and found it empty. Sakura pushed the change return button angrily but nothing came out. She jammed her finger in it for a while until it started beeping and blinking.

Frustrated she kicked the stupid money-stealing machine and let out an angry, huffy, sigh. She could practically _feel_ the other Uchiha's sadistic mirth. She'd sue all vending-machine companies, it was _obvious_ they did this on purpose anyways; they were all programmed to do this every once in a while… like those games at Chuckie Cheese's, and then-

"Sakura."

Crud. The voice was painfully familiar and by the way her name had been said, seriously, and had not been followed with a "-chan" she knew she was in for it.

"Heh heh, Hello Kakashi-sensei?" Screwed, screwed, _so_ screwed.

The silver-haired teacher stood outside the doorway for a moment, giving her a chance to gauge his anger. Though she couldn't do it very well due to the fact that he had put his mask back on and she had only known him for what? Three days?

His showing eye was not lazy as it normally looked but much sharper. He moved into the room quietly and she could practically feel the odd yet content air die away to make room for this more agitated one.

He gave her a stone-cold look and did not beat around the bush like she hoped he would. "Sakura, not only did you violate and strike a member of the school staff but you also _stole_ from a teacher." Okay, she could understand the whole strike and violate stuff but she hadn't stolen _anything_ from any teache- Oh yeah. The mask. Sakura could only smile sheepishly. She hadn't thought he would notice…

"I sincerely _hope _you are ready to face the consequence of these-" Suddenly Kakashi-sensei cut himself and Sakura, who had been trying to look as guilty as possible (for some reason she hadn't felt sorry at all for what she did, and Inner Sakura was keeping half of her mind occupied in devising Plan "Keep Kaka-sensei's mask" Part B) by staring down at her shoes looked up. She followed his gaze and saw that he had locked eyes with the only other person in the room.

His one eye, creased in what looked like a frown as he stared at her accomplice. Sakura knew they were having some unspoken conversation and as usual it pissed her off; she fought to keep her eyes from rolling themselves. The whole I'm-so-cool-I-can-talk-with-other-people-with-out-speaking routine was starting to grate on her nerves.

In the end, it was Kakashi who broke away from Itachi's rather fierce gaze. He didn't look at her though but to an area to her right; that left her a little confused.

"We'll continue this discussion later." he told her, or more precisely the space near but not exactly next to her head, before walking briskly away from the scene.

What? She didn't get punished? Inner Sakura rejoiced at her luck (Apparently this meant the Plan, which-she-had-absolutely-no-part-in, was a success). Sakura, on the other hand, looked between the two males, one walking away and the other keeping his ground.

Was Kakashi-sensei _afraid_ of Itachi?

For some other odd reason that she couldn't understand, this reasoning somehow lifted her ego. Knowingly full well that as much as she could be intimidated by Itachi's figure, she wasn't in any way actually _frightened_ of him. Nope, if she was then she wouldn't be able to annoy him, and then what would she do for fun?

Then again, she wasn't afraid of any of the Akatsuki unlike most… err, correction _all_ of her classmates. Things that happen to you as a kid always seem to stick with you and Sakura never had any bad memories of the people in the group. Only that they had accepted her in once when she had been feeling horrible and been a sniveling mess.

True, they probably only did it to get the pranking gear she had brought.

But the concept was still there.

One light metal hit another somewhat heavier metal creating a loud hollow sound and Sakura jumped up.

Her Sprite had come. Finally.

Remembering what happened before when she thought the machine had cheated her, Sakura brandished the soda can and hummed a short hummed a short stanza of triumph, blowing Itachi, who had went back to his ice cream _again _by the way, a raspberry for extra measure. He ignored her.

After seeing she wasn't getting a reply she popped open the soda's tab and lifted it to her lips. Only to be sprayed straight up the nose with hot, fizzy, clear liquid.

Today was obviously _not_ Sakura's day.

She sputtered wildly and held the can away from her person, watching as the bubbles and perfectly good drinkable soda spilled over her hand, down the sides of the can and to the ground forming a small translucent puddle below her.

Itachi snorted into his ice cream and Sakura sent him a meaningful glare, thinking of maybe moving the still-flowing can toward him so _he_ could see how-

WOAH! Pause, rewind and play.

Itachi snorted? Sakura's head locked on the Uchiha heir. According to unwritten guidelines, Uchiha's and Hyuuga's were only allowed to display the emotions annoyance and _sometimes _happiness -but in the best manners of course-at someone else's chagrin but never their own family members. Something about Clan honor and blah-blah-blah. Well those were the rules for the men -coughSEXISTScoughcough- of the clans. The point was that as well-known, famous, and prominent member of said clan never in her life thought she'd hear Itachi Uchiha, snort _ever_ (period) much less at _her_.

But, well- _Dang_ he was hawt doing it.

Those thoughts were probably the only ones that made her forget her anger at being mocked and instead stared blankly at the still grinning Itachi. A cherise cat-like smile spread across her own face. "Looks like he _does_ have the emotions." she smirked placing her non-sticky can-holding hand on her hip.

Immediately he sombered up as if just realizing what he was doing and swerved his body slightly to his right, away from her.

Sakura smirk broadened. Oh, she was _definitely_ getting to him.

She opened her mouth to make another comment when the door adjacent to the cafeteria opened. And who else would come out of said door than, the lunch crew. Again.

She looked around the area this time thinking of a time similar to this, sure enough she was in same little corridor she was in when she was first given the list of tasks. Well, to be more precise the _hallway_ Kakashi had shown up in was where she was but, same difference.

Apparently, the bell had rang signifying the end of the third lunch period. Seeing as it was the last lunch period and there was no other lunch afterward, there was no intercom message to dismiss the seniors (lucky freaks) early for it, so Sakura had to depend solely on the bell. The bell she never _heard_. One day, one day soon she'd track down this imperceptible bell and-

Ino was the second person through the doorway but the first to speak to her.

"Hey forehead-girl, you finished?"

Sakura blinked, "Finished what?" Thinking her thoughts of utter revenge on bells and their makers? No actually _someone_ interrupted her.

The blonde frowned and moved away from the double door entrance and towards her, allowing the others behind her to pass through, "The worksheets you had to do that made you skip lunch." she pronounced slowly and keeping direct eye-contact like one would do with an overactive kindergartener.

Suddenly it dawned on Sakura what she was talking about and she cursed her Innerself for not telling her to slip into actress-mode. She wasn't beating Karin out of the Grammy this year, for sure. She waved her hand forward in a 'forget that' gesture. "Oh _those_! Yeah, I finished then decided to get a drink because I …" Sakura trailed off after discovering that no one was listening to her anymore.

They were all instead staring at the elder Uchiha who was still peacefully eating his ice cream on the bench. Even Sakura was surprised for a moment to see that he was still there. She thought he'd leave just like before, but apparently she was wrong.

She turned back to Ino's face and instead of seeing the look of pure desire she was expecting to see (and later, mock her for said look) she was greeted with an unreadable look in her cerulean eyes and furrowed blond brows.

The same expression was present on all of their faces except the 'happy couple'. The male of which was death-glaring at his brother, who refused to acknowledge his presence. The flame-colored haired female was surprisingly watching him in the lustful gaze was she had expected to see Ino with.

Ooh, was there perhaps, Trouble in Paradise?

Anyways, what was wrong with her girls in her group? Did they not see what was right in front of their eyes?!

'**They're just like you before. Only instead of being blinded by rage, they're blinded by distrust.' **

For once, something Inner Sakura said, actually made sense.

'**What do you mean **_**for once**_**' **

'Shut it, I'm narrating!'

Hinata was looking between her and Itachi nervously. Tenten was staring him square in the eye. Kiba and Akamaru were seated in a defensive position as was Naruto. And the rest of the boys were being extra wary, watching his every move.

Can you say, Paranoid?

They watched him until he finally finished his ice cream, as of which time he got up and walked out of the unnaturally quiet room. (Even _Lee_ was quiet.)

But as he reached the exit, he turned and shot her a well-sized lengthwise "meaningful" look that _everyone_ caught. Then continued on his merry little way.

All of her lunch buddies turned to her with looks ranging from suspicious to angry.

It donned on her. He _totally_ did that on purpose, just to get her friends to suspect something and then left her to deal with them.

Yes, he was laughing _hard_ on the inside right now. And Sakura would make sure she got him back for it too! No.. really. Inner Sakura wouldn't _let_ her forget. She had a real issue with grudges.

Unsurprisingly, it was Sasuke who spoke first. It was in a soft hiss, a tone one would only suspect to come from a snake. "Sakura, what were you doing?" 'With him' was left unsaid but not unheard.

On the Brightside, that was the first time he'd spoken her name since before the "break up"… or _to_ her at all.

Sakura really couldn't see what their problem was with her just _speaking_ with Itachi. They couldn't possibly have known about her little adventure, so they had no reason to treat her differently or act like she had just committed a crime.

"Drinking Sprite." she answered before sipping the now-settled soda, ignoring the flat warm taste.

"What was Uchiha-san doing?" No! NejiI! He's supposed to be the normal _unsuspicious _one!

Despite the light let down, she answered succinctly, "Eating Ice cream."

"And what were you doing _together_?" Shika, you too?

She stared at them hard and deeply with her emerald eyes and said in complete seriousness, "We were discussing the best plan in how to elope without the Uchiha clan murdering me."

Her jaw almost dropped when she heard Ino's gasp. "I'm kidding!" she laughed at their haunted expressions, but it was more out of disbelief than humor, while tossing her half-empty can of soda into a nearby classroom.

"Don't kid like that Sakura-chan." They were _all_ thinking the worst. Even her "bestest buddy" Naruto (Note: He nominated himself as such a few years ago).

"Guys, aren't we taking this a little too seriously? She was just in the same room as him." Finally! _Somebody_ stoke up for her!

'Minder to self: Get Hinata-chan two boxes full of dark chocolates.'

"Yeah, I guess we are." Kiba said that, but Sakura wasn't sure if she add him to the chocolate-receiving list. He might just be trying to get Hinata-points, seeing as he lost some the other day in Kurenai-sensei's class. "But really, Sakura." he turned to her. "Be careful around those guys, I- No we've _all_ heard rumors about them and they're dangerous. Anyone with a red and black cloak."

As he said this a vivid memory of discussing the issue of said cloaks and somehow Deidara's previous whining about having his sexuality questioned echoed in her mind and she was forced to let out a giggle.

Lee gave her a look of concern, "Why are you laughing Sakura-san? We're being serious. These people are part of an evil organization, under the name of Akatsuki. Their leader is unknown but we all know one of them; Sasuke-san's brother."

His announcement only made her want to laugh harder and her mind wandered back to the list. For being so 'dangerous' they sure had some odd tasks they assigned her. Just remembering that she was trying to join said "evil" organization made her chuckle turn to an all out laugh.

"Sakura-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Akatsuki bad. Cloaks bad. Weasels bad." she interrupted the person who was about to speak but put her new-found humor in her retort.

The rest of her group sent each other weary looks before breaking off into singles, pairs and trios to their assigned classes. Sakura walking a bit ahead of her 'trio' laughter dancing in her eyes as she tried to settle her giggles.

In midst of this she caught Karin staring at her again with that weird expression she had before when she announced she couldn't go karaoke. What was up with her?

Halfway to the Spanish classroom, she decided to pull out her task list, knowing that Karin was too busy 'thinking' and Ino preoccupied with fumbling with her iPhone to notice.

She grinned as she saw the area she wanted lit in the beautiful grass-color.

'Task Two: Complete.'

---

nightDREAMERms: That's basically the end of the Itachi-Task segment that I was too lazy to write last chapter. Subtle plot enhancement, Karin and her stalker stares, etc. Next chapter… I think it's Kisame. Hold on. Yep, it's Kisame! His task is _weird_. But will be very… interesting to write.


	9. Chapter 9

nightDREAMERms: Hello Readers, isn't this formal format a lot nicer than how I normally- EWW!!! PROPER GRAMMAR! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

…. And now that that little …_thing_. Is over, on with the story!

Nope, lied. No there will Not be any ItaSaku (sorry I'm an ItaSaku fan too!), it'd take too much changing of already written stuff and time(in real life and story time) too. Plus, this is a strictly humor story, though there _may_ be some minor pairings (most of which have been already made quite obvious). OK! On with teh story!

Ha! I lied AGAIN!! Another excerpt from my life that relates this story:

As stated many times, somehow Sakura always misses the bell that dismisses third lunch. Guess where that came from? Yep, me. A while ago, I was eating my lunch outside(the bell rings all around the school, normally louder outside than inside), for a change, with my friends when the all sudden people start getting up and leaving. We look at each other and shrug, before following the crowd thinking we were being let out early (we do to make room for the lucky-ass seniors). I arrive at my class, and there are still people in there, so I wait outside my class. And wait…. And wait… And then FINALLY the bell freaking rings, but no one moves. Figuring that my teacher was just holding every one in (which they do!) I stood outside for about 10 minutes before getting fed up with waiting and entering, only to find out. What do you know, it's MY class. I look around at my classmates confused before my teacher announces, "Ah. There she is." (I have other classes with these peeps and they told the teacher I was at school). I blink. "Am I late?" She frowns at me with a similar expression. "Yes… yes you are…!" she says. I look toward my class. "The bell rang?" I get everything from, "Yeah, it did!" To "I don't know… I think that was the _first_ bell." To "There was a bell… but it was really quiet."

What..the…There was a bell… but it was _quiet_?? Why would anyone make a _bell,_ that most people cannot hear _normally_, ring in the middle of a Highschool lunch!?

Stupid late-making bells.

Okay now _really _start!

--

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Late Revenge: Chapter Nine

--

-Thursday, September 8th, 3rd lunch period-

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!" Sakura exclaimed, taking the binded rolls of scrolls offered to her, ignoring the calculating look he sent her and discreetly making sure not to make eye contact; A mind-reading ploy she had learned through experience unfortunately through Ino.

Shikamaru regarded her carefully for a moment before sighing and stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Do I _want_ to know what you're going to use those for?"

Sakura gave him a nervous yet wry smile, "No, you probably don't." she replied, before walking out of the lunch room.

It had been planned the Friday before. Sakura had come to Shikamaru, the only one who would be able to get the items she needed, and asked him to get her said scrolls for her and to deliver them the following Monday before lunch (It was planned that she'd leave after telling them(and him in advance) that she had to visit a teacher for information on a project) She really had no other option, short of stealing them herself, the scrolls she needed weren't for the advanced kids (like her) but open to those taking the A.P. classes (like Shika). For some reason, the school believed that if you took higher-level classes then you were automatically more responsible than all of the other students. _Nevermind_, that most of said "geniuses" were more likely to go mentally insane.

Besides, it wasn't like any of her other friends would have gotten it for her if she asked to, not even Hina-chan! As they, well _most_, were all still a bit sour about the Itachi-incident, Sasuke being the biggest grump, and always looking out for the extra-ordinary. That's not to say that Shikamaru wasn't as wary as the rest of them; he probably just thought it not worth the effort to show these feelings outwardly like them.

What her scroll contained probably wouldn't of "confirmed" their suspicions, but it would've lead them believe she was being corrupted. Which she was probably was. But Shikamaru was smart enough, or nice enough, to know she wanted her privacy and wouldn't tell anyone of her little request. Maybe she shouldn't have laughed as much the other day, then she wouldn't _be _in this situation.

…

But, come on, it was Hilarious!

And Deidara _certainly_ didn't help the either; Sending her a note flown in by a exploding bird in the _middle of class_. Ok, so it was the middle of homeroom but, same thing!

Everyone had jumped up startled, some even ducking under their desks. Sakura recognizing the little clay animal from Zabu-Haku arc, snatched the note off it's person and blocked herself with her binder literally seconds before it blew up. When the rest of the class stopped screaming and turned to her, she could only shrug all the while weeding the little note into her one-strap bookbag. (Though for a while she contemplated blaming the whole thing on the person sitting to her left, but thought better of it; Figuring that would just more likely incriminate herself More.) She could still remember Naruto, who had dived to the floor after the thing started chirping and waving it's wings wildly and loudly (an advance warning) looking up at her wide-eyed on lock of hair a tad singed at the end, 'What.. the… Sakura-chan?" Then right after the "shocked" moment was the average male, "That explosion was so _cool_!" Thing. Another thing she would never understand about that sub-species. Their attractions to things that crash and blow up.

The oddest thing of all, that surprised both her classmates _and_ her was Kakashi-sensei's entire blind eye to the freak accident. He just kept reading and turning the pages in his book as he hadn't heard a thing and would reply as such when asked about the explosion.

Now that she thought about, Sakura noticed that he hadn't reported her to the school board like he implied he would.

She had noticed back then though (before the explosion thing), that every once in a while he'd look up from his reading material and look at her, _directly _at her with an undeterminable look. Apparently, so did some of her 'untrusties'.

_-Tuesday, Sept 5__th__, Homeroom-_

_Sakura felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up from her Math homework that she was double-checking. Call her a perfectionist, she would agree and probably shout it to the sky. She turned around to see Chouji looking beyond and then at her curiously albeit confused, behind him were Shino and Kiba, both with similar expressions. _

"_Hmm?" She was mildly surprised that they were actually speaking to her. Not that her group was ignoring her or anything, but they had refrained from… well, doing any excessive or unnecessary talking. They probably didn't even _know _they were doing it. She knew they wouldn't ever exclude her on purpose and hurt her feelings… again. But this wasn't just from the "distrusting" issue anymore. It was more about her 'battle' with Karin as most of them had made friends with her and it was _really _awkward to have that kind of hate in one table_, _even just in aura. If their new 'treatment' was keeping them from talking about _her_ around her then she applauded their efforts. But still, it was starting to get annoying and this sort of cheered her up. _

"_Why is Kakashi-sensei you-know looking at you like that?" the rather skinny male asked. Today was a 'weighing' day for wrestlers. (Where they put you in your weight class, so you know who your going to go against) And as most other wrestlers at the school, Chouji also went through the ritual of not eating thing for at least a day before the weighing. Actually, it was a tad odd that he wasn't in his 'bad mood' that he normally shrunk into during this time; said mood normally involved him snapping at every person who muttered a coherent-sentence to him all the while staring mournfully at some wrapped food product he could not resist buying from the vending machine but could not consume._

_Sakura looked around and spotted the silver-haired man who was indeed looking at her. He caught her gaze, held it for a moment before looking back down into his book. _

_Most likely he was thinking about what happened before in this class, But she wasn't about to tell _them _that. No, she needed a different story. 'I don't know.' wouldn't' work. _

_The orange cover and red Do-Not sign caught her attention and reminded her of what it actually was. A light bulb formed above her head. _

_She turned all the way around her desk, "Isn't it obvious?" she asked sounding as confused as they were. _

_Chouji shook his head along with Kiba; Shino quirked an eyebrow. _

_Sakura feigned a sigh and took a quick "secretive" glance towards their teacher, "Okay, do you see that book he's reading?" _

_Chouji looked over her shoulder and examined it as best he could at the odd angle, by stretching his neck before leaning back into his chair. "Yeah, it says 'Icha Icha Paradise'." _

_A small smirk grew then vanished on Sakura's face without any of them noticing. So they _didn't_ know what it was. Just made her job a whole lot easier. _

_She leant in and cupped one of her hands on the side on her mouth. "That's not a _regular _book. It's disgusting drawn out disproportioned porn called Manga._(( A/N: I'm sorry but I've _always _wanted to hear an anime character say that!))"_ she wrinkled her nose ,_ _"Now here's the thing I'm a teenage girl-" she pointed to herself, "-He's a guy. Reading this 'Man-ga'. THINK about it." She swirled around in her chair back to the normal position, and resumed reviewing her homework, snickering when she heard the appalled and revolted groaning shortly afterward._

Back to the current issue, Shikamaru also owed her for a certain _Ino_ incident involving her undergarments, him, the song "Rich Girl" , and a funlicious evil Sakura-style dare, that he probably didn't want getting out. (As always she had been equipped with her digital-cam)

"Sakura." the still laid-back voice called to her as she turned to walk away, "Just, don't do anything stupid."

Ah, ever-so-smart Shikamaru had already figured out that he wasn't going to get anything out of her by asking what she was planning to do and that her intentions weren't as innocent as she had told them they were.

Her face froze for a split-second, not that he saw it as she was already facing opposite from him. "Of course not, Shika!" Her automatic-actress voice speaking. Then she kept on her way out, knowing full well that Shikamaru would mumble something like "troublesome" before entering the lunchroom and arriving at the table 'late'.

'I already have.'

---

"I got your fish-things." Sakura announced unhappily, walking into the men's restroom. She was greeted by the stink of old dried up poop mixed with out-dated cleanser. Wonderful.

The blue-toned man gave her a crooked smile, "So you got the Deidara's letter… err, actually it's more likely it blew up in your face."

"You know him so well." She replied, still deadpanned and sat the scrolls on a splattered wet sink, careful to place it where the ink would not smear. Her curiosity had been flattened quite soundly due to Shikamaru's little comment. It was one thing lying to your friends for a purpose or when they've angered you, but another when you lie while they're genuinely worried about you.

In simpler terms, Shika sucked the fun out of her day.

"I see your bursting with enthusiasm," he mimicked her tone, before kicking open the last stall door, that creaked in retaliation. He ducked his head inside and then out, "And they're not "Fish-things" they're either fish or things, not both."

"Whatever, fishy-man." Sakura muttered under her breath.

"What did you say?" His voice was light but had an underlying annoyance in it, he had his arms crossed and his face told him he was anything but amused.

Sakura sighed to herself. Technically, he hadn't done anything to her, as of yet, so she needn't be rude. Besides, Kisame was quite… large. Probably taller than any of the teachers working at Konoha High and had more muscle (that was easily seen through his black and red cloak) than Chouji's entire team put together. He also carried a wrapped up sword-thing (he would probably yell at her for calling it a 'sword-thing' but who cares, he can't read her mind!), that rivaled if not bettered Zabuza's. Best not to get on his bad side.

"Well the note said to get fifteen 17c-102 scrolls and meet you here in the boy's northern first floor bathroom, during lunch today. Everyone knows that "c" means it has something to do with living sea creatures and that anything in the hundreds is at least mildly dangerous but I don't know exactly what they are."

Kisame's mood seemed to change dramatically as he went from cold to mischievous even managing to pull up a smirk. "Bring one of those over here." he ordered.

She did as she was commanded to, careful to skip over a puddle of who-knows-_what_ near the second stall. Eck, this was _way_ worse than the girl's room. And the girl's room was Pretty bad. She placed the while, red-ribboned scroll in the senior's awaiting hand. Kisame carefully positioned the scroll above the center of the toilet before biting his thumb, quickly drawing blood, and wiping the finger across the paper, subsequently spitting the blood he had conjured in his mouth out and into the toilet.

The scroll started to smoke and on instinct Sakura drew her hand across her face to protect herself from whatever sea enemy that would appear. Instead she heard two soft splashes.

Sakura leaned over the rim of what some girls(not her, though she used to hold suspicions about Ino) referred to as the "Porcelain God". "Aww… they're so cute." She voiced watching the two beautifully-colored fish swim around their new environment. One had a red-orange look with a couple of patches of yellow near the back of it's fins. The other was a exquisite mix of red and blue, purple when the colors met.

They circled the toilet contently.

That was until, the water finally settled.

They each froze their movement- "Eh… what's wrong with them?" -before jerking in random directions, snapping their teeth-filled jaws open, looking for something. One tried unsuccessfully to fit it's small-but-too-big body down the drain of the toilet. The other seemed to pace from one side of the 'tank' to the other before drifting it's head up and leaping out of the water, straight at Sakura's face.

"Aieh!" she yelped, and stumbled backward, oblivious to her partner's snickering. She covered her nostrils and in doing so muffled herself, "Wha de fwea? That _thwing_ almos took off my mwose!" (Translation: What the freak? That _thing_ almost took off my nose!)

The blue-haired man didn't reply but dropped another droplet of blood from his wounded digit into the pool of water. He watched their avid reaction, "They react to the scent of blood. It took them awhile the first time 'cause they were thrown into a new environment and disoriented but as soon as the water somewhat settled the smell made itself present although it was still distorted." He explained before doing a 'couple' of hand signs. "Read your Task List about it." he told her without once looking up from the toilet.

Sakura uncovered her nose calmly, after backing out of danger's way and unzipped the book bag that she had casually thrown to the floor near the entrance.

One look at the her 'Task Manager' and she shot Kisame an unbelieving look.

"Those are PIRAHNAS?" she practically shrieked.

The blunette only nodded before squatting down in the next stall doing the same thing as the last.

"What's the point of this?" she argued after she heard another two splashes.

Surprisingly, Kisame shrugged his shoulders at her, "No real reason. Just wanted to do it."

"Won't people _see_ them!" she remarked still stunned that their was no ulterior motive, for a prank so… malicious!

"Which is why we have genjutsu." he replied, making quick use of his hands and uttering a few words under his breath. The new fish gradually disappeared until, all that could be seen was occasional random ripples in the water. Man, now _she_ wanted to be a genjutsu-master! If not for the power and skill for plain defense! Kisame sent her a smugly dark smirk, "But don't worry. They'll find out… eventually." Evil chuckle.

Sakura's eyes widened at his implication. Then immediately said a silent "Thank you, for not making me male" prayer.

"As long as I'm not any _real_ part of this-"

Kisame cut her off, "Na ah, you did read the mission details, right? This is YOUR mission." He got up from his crouch, picked up the scrolls from the counter and stuffed them into her befuddled arms. "Which means you get to deal with the dirty work, the scrolls, all the problems. And of course-" He got a weird glint in his eyes. "The Piranha testing."

Sakura gulped at the look she was receiving, it was full of sadistic humor. "What do you mean _Pirahna Testing_?" she squeezed out hesitantly, almost dropping the scrolls now resting in her limbs.

"Nothing much," he said nonchalantly but oh so sarcastically, "you'll just have to drip out your blood into the piranha's area each time to make sure that they actually _are _piranhas and you didn't screw up. Plus you'll be needing some of that blood to activate all of those scrolls."

Sakura paled. She wasn't that… _fond _of blood. Sure she could tolerate it when it occurred in a fight or something, but that wasn't purposefully gathering your own or someone else's blood. For some reason, she had a produced a semi-fear-disgust-sickness-disease to the metallic-tasting ruby liquid. Even the sight of the bottled blood in doctor's offices and hospitals made her queasy, especially it's horrid smell. Which was kind of a bad trait to have for a future medic, but… at least she wasn't as bad as Hinata-chan! The girl was entirely light-headed, of course Kiba or Naruto would save her before she hit the floor, but still. Hey, wouldn't having to do draw blood thirteen or more times leave her feeling off and about to faint too? And that's only if the piranhas were piranhas _and_ reacted right away! …. Just thinking about those little, sharp-teethed swimming things trying to attack her… smelling and lapping up her offered blood.

Sakura was starting to turn a little green; the back of her throat was starting develop an odd bubbling after-taste.

"Oh!" Kisame added mock-cheerfully, "You'll probably need this!" He handed her a elongated kunai whose edges were wielded and sanded so sharp, so crisp, that it literally sparkled in the fluorescent lights above them.

Forget a little green, her cheeks were now equivalent to broccoli stains. "I.. I think I might throw up." she whispered, dropping a few scrolls to the ground and once again covering her mouth, her eyes were feeling a bit dry.

Kisame sent her a sly look from his spot against the side-mirror. "Maybe the piranha's will lick it up."

All poor Sakura could do was throw open the stall door and duck her head as Kisame's laughter rang throughout the room.

--

"Finish this one and we're done." Kisame ordered, then leaned back against his spot near the wall, eyes closed. His 'Samehada'(the sword-thing, and Yes, she _did_ get reprimanded for calling it that) was leaning next to him. He told her in one of the bathroom's on the second that she _shouldn't_ touch it, but she could if she wanted to. She caught his delight in this prospect and declined knowing full well that Kisame was only _delighted_ in something when it caused _him_ enjoyment. And enjoyment for him, was more than likely pain for her.

'What do you mean _we_ I'm the one doing all the bloody work around here. You just say that stupid genjutsu and sleep.' Sakura inwardly chided, dripping the red liquid from her palm and into the toilet with a small wince. They were now on the third-story south boy's restroom. After the whole barfing incident, Sakura decided to just get it over with and calmy accepted her situation.

'**Calmly my **_**ass**_**. I had to nearly Slap you to get you to stop blubbering!' **

Okay.. _not_ so calmly. But she had still done the task, and that's all that mattered.

She stepped backward as the fish 'went psycho' as she like to call it and swam around eagerly awaiting their wounded prey.

"Kisame I'm done, your turn." she called beckoning him forward like she had all the other times.

That was the routine. Unscroll, bleed, swipe, fish drop, more blood, genjutsu, repeat.

And as nice as it would have been for this little routine to finish happily and the task to go on without outside problems, karma and chaos just won't agree with the plan.

Just as Kisame enters the stall through the doorway the original door to the restroom is yanked open.

Lots of things happen at once:

Sakura jumps then misses her landing by slipping on a puddle of water, that the fish splashed up and wasn't there previously. Kisame who is in mid-hand signal transition has to stop immediately due to the intruder. Sakura who is still falling, tries to grab something to keep her up. Kisame feels something tug at one of his arms still locked in the "horse" form. Sakura is a lot heavier than one might think when combined with her power. Kisame doesn't know this and only steadies himself for her original weight. They both rock unbalanced then go tumbling down. The piranhas in the bowl are laughing hysterically. Sakura and Kisame are stuck in a very awkward position.

"Your knee is squishing my face." Sakura strangled out after battling against the light blue almost-too-muscular-to-be-human leg for air.

"_Deal_ with it." Kisame, who although wasn't hurt was a bit pissed at being dragged down with the accident-prone girl, groaned quickly did redoing and finishing the concealment jutsu.

"What… the…?" A new voice rang, causing both of their heads to turn.

In the doorway stood a amethyst-haired teen that neither of them new. Whether the fact that he was a stranger was a good or bad thing was up to the viewer. Sakura, herself, thought of it as a _bad _thing.

Crap.Crap.Crap.Crap.Crap.Crap.Crap.Crap.CRAAAAAP!

She wasn't supposed to be in there, The Men's Room, in the first place… and to be in there with an Akatsuki. She didn't know this guy so she had no sufficient blackmail to help her. If he told _anyone_ in this gossip-based school… with her friends already thinking… and the whole teacher incident already on her record (well it _could _be)… crap.

From the look on Kisame's face he was probably thinking along the lines of something similar.

Just as Kisame was about to open his mouth to say something, most likely an unbelievable excuse for their predicament. The stranger's eyes widened significantly and mouth turned into an 'O'. "I understand. Sorry for interrupting." he spoke humor latched to his every word.

"Wh- Oh. Yeah! That's it exactly!" Kisame replied, a new devious smirk forward.

Sakura on the other hand was at a lost. Why was the guy apologizing? And why was Fishy-man so happy- UH-Oh. Kisame was cheerful, it must be something disgusting.

"Guess it's true that the Akatsuki really _do _run the school." the violet-haired man commented, thoughtfully. "But really, they let you get away with _that_?"

_That_? What was THAT?!

By now both Kisame and her were off the ground and standing in front of the invisible-piranha infested toilet.

Kisame's smirk only widened and he wriggled an eyebrow, 'Well you got to get it sometime, somewhere-"

Sakura's elbow jabbed his side as quick as lightning, effectively silencing him with only a quick "Ow!" and "Ay!". Only an idiot or someone completely naïve wouldn't of been able to figure out where _that_ sentence was heading for. And the bastard was happy to go along with it too! She sent the man who was still wrapped up in post-grumbling a deep glare. No WAY was she her rep getting messed up any more than it already was!

"NO! That's not what we were doing. We're…" Great. Now what was she going to say?! Something that covered her but would not ruin her well-worked on rapport. And as usual in these times of peril her brain left her and let Inner Sakura devise the plans. Though this one… she had to admit she rather liked.

"Hey you!" she turned her entire attention to the puzzled stranger who quickly turned his gaze to her.

"We can trust you, can't we umm…"

"Seta." he supplied.

"Right Seta! We can trust you, right?!" she exclaimed.

"Umm.. Sure?" Seta answered, shrugging his shoulders.

Sakura looked left then right before lowering her head and her tone to a dramatic stage whisper. "Well, there's a big secret that Kisame here has been hiding. But, I say he stops denying it, it's time everyone knew the truth!"

Now Kisame, who had been miffed that his story had been disregarded perked up. He really couldn't do much as they both knew it was Sakura's responsibility to "deal with any problems that may occur" and _no one_ disobeyed leader's instructions. Why? She didn't know, and frankly, she didn't _want_ to.

Sakura took a deep inhale of breath and paused.

"Which is…?" Seta asked, hoping to make her continue.

'Here it goes.' She looked up determinedly into the gold eyes of her new lavendar-haired acquaintance "That, Kisame here. Is in all actuality, a Cross-dresser!!"

"Wha-what?" Seta goggled while his eyes bulged.

Kisame voiced similar words but in more death-sealing kind of way.

Sakura chose to ignore his presence for a while. For her _own _safety. She slipped an arm over Seta's shoulder and casually walked the boy away from the fuming Akatsuki member.

"You see, everyday for the past week, we have met in here. Mostly for tips on fashions and such. Seeing as that he cannot wear _my_ clothes." She took a moment to fiddle with the bottom seam of her red and white shirt. "I'm much too small."

"Okay?" Seta answered still extremely unsure of the whole situation.

Sakura played up the part joyously. Kisame had made her puke then laughed at her _for_ it. This was her way of getting back at him. Besides he was just as ready to ruin _her_ rep. "I'm surprised nobody noticed it sooner. I mean come on! The guy _paints_ his fingernails, PURPLE! Of all the girly colors." she sighed exasperated. Inner Sakura must be working overtime for these ideas.

"I thought _all_ of the Akatsuki did that!" Seta exclaimed. Yes, he was falling into her web of lies gradually.

"Oh they do! But they all _know_ of Kisame's secret. One of ou-their many secrets is his, and they decided to do this to help him out by making it mandatory that everyone wear the nail polish." She had almost slipped on 'their' and told him her current position… Since when did she consider herself one of them?

"Why else did you think a group of "fearsome Men" wore the color that is one of the closest to pink on the color wheel?" she admonished twirling a short lock of her own hair for emphasis.

Seta was entirely buying it. "Ah so that's why." he shakes his head as if a great mystery had just been solved. The nail-polish thing probably _was _to him and the rest of the student body.

"Good. Good." The pair had ended their short little walk back at the entrance to the bathroom. She turned to him, "Unfortunately, Kisame is quite _shy_ about this so you understand that this needs to be "kept down" ." she lowered with her hands to show the secrecy they needed.

"Yes, I understand." he replies, now satisfied with his fake-information. She still wasn't sure if he was the type to spread rumors or not, but either way this was probably the best she was going to get out of him.

Hastily, she opened the door and ushered him out, all the while smiling brightly, "Great! Nice talking to you, Bye!"

She waved at him until she saw the purple-haired male turn the corner of the next hall. At that time she closed the bathroom door closed and leaned against the wall, tiredly. "Glad that's over." she sighed.

Knuckle crack.

Sakura's eyes widened as her pulse skipped a beat. She forgot about Kisame. Hesitantly she turned around to see the blue-toned male carrying a strange glint in his eyes and not one of humor like before.

"I'm… a _what_…" he stated more than asked, his sword was no longer against the wall but gripped tightly in his hands.

She scooted backward against the wall, her light-magenta hair trailing across the dirty tiles.

"It was a needed excuse?" she offered nervously eyes flickering between Kisame and the nearby wooden door.

"You've got five seconds. Four-"

Sakura was gone by 'got' .

---

nightDREAMERms: Woohoo! I did something DURING school! Wow, I must really like this one or something! I think it's becoming more regular than NSS! Next chapter, has more information, serious stuff, but that doesn't mean there's not any humor! Guess whose task? Oh and the next task is extensively…longer than I had originally imagined, so that's why it took so long to get this one up! Sorry!


	10. Chapter 10

nightDREAMERms: Hello peeps!!!! Ok first of all I need to thank SpeedDemon315  for the idea with Zetsu, I was stuck on what to do for him. I won't be using your exact plan but… you'll see! And I wanted to add the information about Zetsu's "abilities" so it would make enough sense for Sakura to not automatically accept his mannerisms, although when she was younger she did because, when you're little you don't really know a lot of things and she didn't think much or long on the subject.

Random thingy about me:

Something that I love to do when I'm bored. FAKE SLEEP!!! It's hilarious (for me) and annoying (to others). Actually this takes a lot of practice to be able to do right. You got to control your breathing (deeper than normal and at a constant pace), not gulp(if you HAVE to you got to do it very discreetly), and not react to any loud sounds or random actions by your surroundings. At the same time you got to be able to detect the slightest movement of people around, detecting vibrations through the floor and such, and make sure your "sleep" is as close to normal as possible. No "I fell sound asleep in one minute crap." You can't even smirk at the others conversations around you, so much as a flinch of the eyelid will expose you. All these things also help you detect when other people are Fake sleeping as well. Another thing you gotta have is patience (which, I'll tell you now, I have little of; but will conjure some for a good cause), sometimes it can take more than hour for someone to finally notice you. But the best part is when your friends or random strangers try to wake you from your "deep slumber". Some of the stuff they did made me wanna end the prank right then and there just to LMAO. (Friend: _OMFG! SHE WON'T WAKE UP!!!!! IS SHE DEAD??!_; Or the more popular(and what happened last time to me), Friend_: -slaps you- Yep, definitely out of it. _You_:-kicks back when he's turned away- _Friend: _WTF?!_)All in all, it's really fun to do and somehow also helps you in controlling your emotions. So far only one thing has actually awoken me correctly from that is … something about someone…

Okay! It was when one of my brother's friends(the same one who gave me his stupid cold!) whispered in my ear, "Hot naked Itachi". I woke up because I HAD to laugh; it was so Random!!! But of course they all thought I woke up because, I wanted to _see_… so now they all think.. -YOU KNOW WHAT START THE STUPID STORY!

--

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Late Revenge: Chapter Ten

--

POP!

Slurp… slurp…

POP!

Sakura licker her lips as her hand traveled under her desk to crush itself against her groaning stomach. She had skipped breakfast, as always. And was now extremely hungry as she had been the day before… and the day before that…. And a few days before that… it was really _really_ starting to add up now.

"You _know_ you wanna give me some of that." she ordered, reaching her hand out.

Ino leaned back away from her pink -haired friend, twirling the apple green lollipop in her mouth.

Pop!

"Now, why would I wanna do that?" she asked in a sing-song voice, swinging the candy in front of her back and forth; taunting her.

Sakura's lime-colored eyes followed the tasty item eagerly. "'Cause I'm you're very best friend and _totally _deserve it?" she pleaded. Her stomach growled in protest and she tightened the hand against her abdomen.

Ino stuck the lollipop halfway in her mouth so that when she talked it was in a smushy language but still audible. "Deserve it, huh?" she repeated as if processing her words before giving the emerald candy a lick.

She pulled the stick off her lips and pointed it at Sakura, frowning, "While you were off working on your-whatever, _I _had to run from this classroom to the parking lot and back, carrying tons of class stuff, _nine_ times, Sakura! Do you know how far that is? And of course my class-partner who was _supposed_ to help me with these chores wasn't there! Showing up fifteen minutes before the period's over instead."

Sakura cringed at her berating tone. She had forgotten about chore-day; the day they ran errands for teachers during class, and were normally rewarded by teachers with candy(which they were allowed to eat in class). Well _sorry_ she hadn't been really thinking about it when she was running away from a death-wanting Sakura. She had managed to make it to class with only a few scrapes and one painful bruise. Ironically, none of these injuries were directly inflicted by Kisame, rather she caused them when trying to run away. Kisame had stopped at the top of the stairs unable to continue due to his fits of laughter at seeing her trip halfway down, which caused the nasty bruise (which still hurt!).

The only forgiving factor about the whole incident was that after he got his mirth under control (she had glared at him the entire way from the second floor platform) he Did offer to help her back up, but she had declined, hoping to regain what was _left_ of her dignity.

Ino took a long slurp of her lollipop before continuing, "You're just lucky that Karin was here to help me."

At the name, Sakura adverted her gaze away from the delicious junk-food and across the room. Her eyes spotted a red-haired girl sucking on a lollipop as well,. Her inner lips were notably stained purple. The girl felt the stare and turned her head directly at her, startling Sakura, a smile spread across her face before she performed her signature ring-twinkling hand-wave.

Sakura stuck her tongue out.

Ino grimaced at the display, "Stop acting so childish, Sakura! Karin helped when it wasn't her day nor responsibility to." she voiced in a serious tone before turning around in her seat and feigning undivided attention to Yume-sensei.

Sakura responded in another raspberry before stubbornly crossing her arms. She wasn't childish! Karin was just evil! Just look at the way she… she… ok she hadn't done anything _recently_ but she was still… KARIN! And that _automatically _made her evil… right?

Sakura's gaze drifted over to the glasses-bearing girl again. She was innocently copying notes from the board (something Sakura should've of been doing, but wasn't) into her binder with one hand and eating her grape lollipop with the other.

She looked like the normal non-diabolical student.

Sakura inwardly sighed, Karin really _hadn't_ done anything to provoke her or hadn't been rude to her in anyway for a while now. Contrary to that, she had been nothing but welcoming ever since she arrived at Konoha High, however fake it might've been. Though then again, Inner Sakura _was_ known to corrupt her visage (as in the Itachi mission) with emotions. Maybe… she had been just imagining Karin's snide and sarcastic looks…. Maybe… Sasuke had just been two-timing _both_ of them and she was a victim as well! But… didn't have enough self-confidence to break it off with him. She certainly was clingy enough for that… She though back to the first day of school at the end of the day near the gym, the girl had been positively glowing then. Then that would also explain her constant need to be in the limelight.

Although unable to really comprehend the confidence problem Sakura could easily and almost nostalgically understand the intense need for acceptance that had plagued her once before.

Her eyes softened as the girl flicked off the cap of a blue marker. She ignored Inner Sakura's raging disagreements to her speculations. It didn't seem like Karin had any other _real_ friends in her year and only hung around Sakura's group. On top of that she had not entered into the group on the best terms, being the new girlfriend of a boy whose ex was in, and well loved by, said group. Sucky situation.

If that was all true then she had most likely been wrong about Karin all alo-

A quick fwip of paper to her left caught her attention. She allowed her gaze to follow it. There, being held up was a picture:

A large bubble like face, labeled 'Sakura' (along with some other profanic words that will not be recited) with two 'X's for eyes and a squiggly line for a mouth. Above that was a much more nicely drawn girl, giving the peace sign with a smile on her face. In deep blue marker, written diagonally across, was the word 'PWNED!'

Sakura's face faulted and she glanced around the room to see if anyone else had seen what she did, but everyone was preoccupied with their own notions (listening or texting).

Karin smiled (fake) sweetly again and slipped the picture effortlessly into her notebook.

'**B-atch it is **_**so**_** on!'**Inner Sakura spat.

Forget that previous ramble, Karin was evil incarnate.

Period.

--

No way.

No _freakin'_ way.

Sakura glared at her blank Akatsuki ring; it was vibrating wildly.

She had JUST finished a task a few hours ago, surely they couldn't want her to perform another one NOW?

Sakura stopped walking and turned around on the spot and glanced on automatic reflex over to the "Akatsuki-Task" hallway. Yep, there was definitely a red and black cloak hidden almost imperceptibly by the shadow that loomed over it.

The Akatsuki must enjoy her pain _very_ much. She let out a frustrated sigh, which earned her attention from her two companions who had been caught up discussing something about Neji and a hat; Tenten was for it, Hinata was against it, and Sakura had been enjoying the two arguing (she especially liked when Hinata had retorted to Tenten's "He'd look good." with "He'd _look_ like a woman!" )

"What's wrong, Sakura?" Tenten questioned, "Why'd you stop?"

"Oh nothing!" Sakura replied, unconsciously moving her hands, which were holding both a textbook and a binder(the same charred one), behind her. "I've just gotta go to the bathroom, I'll meet you guys outside the gym!" she exhaled out in one breath before trotting quite briskly the opposite way.

Hinata's eyes followed her, clouded in confusion, "But isn't the bathroom this w-"

Tenten cut her off with a hand stop sign, the other resting on the tip of her forehead's pressure point, "Yeah, but let's not question her, at least _this_ time she told us she'd be back." she said with a sigh.

Hinata nodded a silent confirmation, before walking ahead. "Ok, also, it doesn't matter what way he wears it, he'll still look like a girl."

Tenten blinked, before figuring out what she was talking about and running after her yelling her dissent.

--

Sakura glared up at the figure in the darkness, though now close up she could see the dual tone of his skin. Light green and Dark green.

Deciding not to wait for orders, she interrupted him before he could get a word out of his mouth. "I'm not doing _anything_ today. I just finished with Kisame's mission! I can't go on another one, I'm still sore, I'm only human: I need a break. I need to do my classwork. I need to talk to my friends. I NEED TO EAT!" she ended in a rather loud whine, a lot different form the original, unwavering commanding tone she had planned.

The male sent her a blank look, almost as if she hadn't spoken at all. "I wasn't going to say you needed to do anything today. But, frankly, I don't give a-_ It's okay! Just meet me outside the back entrance of the gymnasium, tomorrow morning!_" his tone changed dramatically in mid-sentence, going from dark and uncaring to cheery and upbeat.

The man looked disgruntled at his own reply and left in silent pop.

Sakura was left staring at the space that he had just occupied.

What just happened?

--

Sakura happily scooped up another spoonful of scrambled eggs. Yum! She had finally decided to eat breakfast…. Actually her mom forced her after noticing that she had been skipping a lot of her meals. Her father had passed away a few months after she was born, so she had grown up only knowingly a mother, but it was okay, they pulled through the rough times. Despite that, her mom had done an amazing job as a single parent. Though she had trouble juggling work and home (she was an attorney) she had always done her best and normally home on weekends, unlike some of her more wealthy friends who almost always had the house to themselves.

Sakura swallowed the food with a gulp of orange juice. "Hey mom, what's MPD?" she asked; in the middle of homework curiosity took over her and she typed in a few words on google that she described Zetsu's odd behavior. MPD was the number one result in relevance.

The brunette woman paused her efforts, looking up as if trying to find the answer, "M..P..D… isn't that the multiple personality disorder?"

"Mmm-hmm…?" Sakura though she saw that underneath the title.

"That's not the actual name of it, but it's the most common, in simple terms it's when a person has one or more split personalities, normally caused to from through a traumatic experience." Her mom had morphed into teacher mode. "Although normally a disorder, in certain areas, such as high-class governmental employees and such are required to develop a version of this disorder to help keep their secrets confidential. You see, if under torture, threat or interrogation, the victim can transfer all the data to their other personality and efficiently keep the information safe. The most major difference between the two is that some of those with the disorder do not know of their alter egos but the developed version allow the person to hear and see what their other-self is doing but not control them. Some clans have been said to have first inspired this but nothing's official." As has been made pretty obvious, Sakura' mom had been working on her medical degree when she had decided to change professions.

"Oh, ok thanks." Sakura replied, picking up a delicious looking strip of crispy bacon, her mother had told her all she had wanted to know and more. Because of the fact that Zetsu could seemingly hear his other self And was part of a _secret _organization that was renown not just in the school system but throughout the entire city she assumed that he developed it himself.

'**That would really suck, having to answer to someone else's actions that lived inside of your head!' **

'I can sympathize with _that _pain."

'… **was that a subtle **insult**towards me?' **

'Huh? What are you talking about? I said nothing.'

"By the way Sakura. I found whatever-_this-_is in your jeans while doing the laundry."

Sakura's eye's widened as she saw item her mother was holding up. She stood up, snatched it from her hand, and stuffed it in the small front pocket of her book bag in a record three seconds. "Nothing! Nothing at all!" she invoiced, moving backward. "See you later!" she called once she reached the doorway and escaped before her mother could utter another word.

Sakura sighed on her way to the bus stop and correctly zipped up the pocket, making sure beforehand the item had not snagged on the zipper. After concluding that there was no damage she dropped the bag so it hung to her side.

That stupid mask was gonna get her into trouble one day.

--

"So, last night Bret voted off that girl -shoot! What's her name!- you know the one who-"

"OH CRAP!"

Sakura, Tenten, Hinata, Ino (the Golden Four)… and Karin, were at the front entrance door of the high school they were all assigned to attend, for or against their will. Sakura being a rather apathetic member of the latter group. True, she had just finished enjoying a nice warm breakfast, but the morning air was cool and made her just want to crawl back under her sheets. The added fact that Tenten forced her to keep the window (that brought even _more_ chilly air) open, again, sent her into her current moody state. She had been giving Ten, the main propellant of her misery, the cold shoulder (though it wasn't working very well, because of the fact that she had _three other _girls to chat with) when her hand connected with the unnaturally warm metal handle. Something seemed to trigger her memory causing her to cry out, unintentionally (or _intentionally_) interrupting the brunette.

'Zetsu… how the heck did I forget!'

'**In a span of about fifteen minutes at that!' **

'Not helping.'

"Sakura!" All three other girls with morals (Karin obviously un-included) shouted simultaneously. No doubt, they had been calling her for a while now.

'**You zone out too much.' **

'Oh really? I wonder whose fault is _that_!'

_Zoning_ back into her surroundings, Sakura's eyes widened and her hand shot up to stop the palm from connecting with her cheek. "Hey!"

Ino dusted her hand as a grin spread across her face, "Told ya girls. Always works." she explained cheekily.

Sakura was about to tell her off when who-else but Karin decided to cut in with her silky-fake voice.

"Are you okay, Sakura?" she asked. Sakura was surprised she didn't bat her eyelashes too.

"I'm fine." she replied, forcing back a sarcastic reply by gritting her teeth. She turned her attention to the rest of the girls. "I just remembered, I have to…"

See, this is why she needed to remember things, at least five minutes before they happened, so she could come up with a _plausible_ excuse. Coming up with some random event wasn't going to be very believable. Especially, when she had the chance to tell them (or if she was acting _really_ well; whine) about it. Oh well, let's stick with the science project excuse.

"It must've slipped my mind! I have to talk to Kurenai-sensei about my project."

Hinata frowned, "You seem to be very forgetful this year, Sakura-san."

"Yeah, Forehead! What happened to 'Organization is the key'-Sakura?" Ino scoffed.

'**I blame the Akatsuki. Bad influences.' ** Inner Sakura chided and Sakura inwardly rolled her eyes at her other-self's blatant hypocrisy.

"Nothing happened. I must've just got a little sloppy over the summer." Sakura replied with a (nervous) chuckle. "But really, I gotta go." she ended edging away from the door and front entrance. (The east entrance was closest to the science hall.)

Ino sighed and shook her head. "This better be some flipping _amazing_ project, Billboard Brow." she told her before opening the door fully and allowing the rest of the girls to enter. Sakura thought she saw Tenten, the last to enter, send her a knowing look. But figured she was just imagining. Really, what could she _know_ anyways?

'Minder to self: Make a science project'

--

Of course Sakura didn't really go to the science hall, but instead walked around the entire campus to get to the back side, where the football field, baseball field, and back entrance to the gym was located. It was a _long_ way to walk and suddenly she understood Ino's unhappiness at having to deliver packages to and from the parking lot. But she had prepared herself for this walk and showed up only _slightly_ out of breath to meet Zetsu. However, she wasn't prepared for his "task".

"Y-you want… Shino's bugs?" she asked in a worried tone.

Zetsu standing to the right of the air-conditioning unit nodded stiffly.

Sakura visibly deflated and she hugged the Task-Planner to her chest.  
"But he loves them…" she muttered to herself. Shino was always the quietest person (Hinata reigning on close second when near _certain_ people) in the group, even when they were younger and had never done anything (directly, at least) that made her dislike him. For that reason, stealing _or_ pranking him wasn't as appealing as it would be for the other group members. "Can't I just get you…. some bugs from the science lab?" she asked hopefully.

Zetsu's face remained as blank as always, "Thought about that and No _- sweety, I need these bugs for my garden._"

His voice changed in mid-sentence and it weirded Sakura out a little but she did not comment. Now that she knew what it was, and that you had to be an exceptionally strong person in both physical and mental capabilities to complete the mutation, she wanted to be sure to stay on the right side with him. He could, like, eat her or something!

But the last word of his reply caught her attention, "You have a garden?"

--

Sakura found herself in a place she was sure did not exist in Konoha High. It was covered in hundreds upon hundreds of flowers. Blues, reds, purples and yellows, hibiscus, lillies, carnations, sunflowers, daisies, tulips! Every flower you could imagine was there. And on the other side she could begin make out some fruits and vegetables growing. There were also trees, oaks, pines, apple, even a willow here and there.

"This place is Huge!" Sakura voiced loudly, spreading her arms wide to express her point. When Zetsu had said he had a garden he was expecting something smaller, that grew next to a wall, not this remake of the Garden of Eden. Her smile, faltered a bit when she noticed the cherry blossom tree placed to her left.

'Lord, they're _everywhere_.'

But she brightened it up to turn to Zetsu who had the same neutral expression, but this time she could see the hints of pride behind his eyes. "It's so beautiful." she whispered softly, and then kicked it up a notch, "And you say, this is all a part of campus, that no one knows about, except for the Akatsuki? And the school board allows you?"

He nodded once more, "Why else do you think there are _two_ fences surrounding the parking lot instead of just one between the bus lot and it?"

Sakura's mind reeled back to the day when Deidara blew up a part of the fence as a distraction. It was indeed set off to destroy the left side (that connected to where the buses were) and not the right (where Zetsu's secret garden was) when a dual explosion would've most likely made their job easier by providing more time while the others checked the damage from both areas.

She took a second look around the well-cared for garden and a thought donned on her, "It's autumn. Won't most of these plants, you-know Die in a few months?"

The two-toned man stared at her for a moment, as if trying to calculate what she could possibly use the information for. In the end he looked out into the distance. "No. The garden runs solely on my chakra." He spoke in an almost robotic tone.

"All of this? Only your chakra!" she repeated, honestly astounded, as she took a second glance at the garden with even more respect. "Wow, now if the other men on the planet were even _half_ as-

"Oh god. Not another _sensitivity_ talk. Look are you going to get me the bugs or not? _Pretty, pretty, please!_" That was about the first time, Zetsu(his real side) willingly showed an emotion to her, even though it was annoyance it was still something and calmed her nerves down a bit.

'Well, it's not like I really have a choice.' she answered sarcastically to his question.

"Why do you need them, anyways? I thought bugs were _bad_ for crops." she tried again to persuade him into a different task.

"Which is why I need _those _bugs." he replied, observing his work once more, "They have already been proved submissible to human contact and orders. A quick jutsu will put them under my command, and my army will be able to kill off all other organisms that try to disturb my garden."

Sakura could practically feel the sweat-building at the back of her head.

Only Akatsuki could turn _gardening_ into a War.

--

'I can't believe I agreed to do this.'

'**You were going to have to get Shino sometime in the pranks. Just think of this as a… earlier revenge. ' **

'Yeah… but still…-'

'**No but's! Concentrate on the mission! Step One:…' **

'(sigh), Invite everyone over to my house for a weekend sleepover tonight.'

'**Good. Step Two:…' **

'Sneak away from the group, after Shino has shedded all bugs from his person for the night.'

'**Mmhmm. Step Three:…' **

'Steal the bugs and hide them in my clothing pack.'

'**Yes!- And looks like it's time for Step One already!' **

Sakura's head snapped up, after berating herself for a moment for not paying attention where she was going, she scanned the crowd in front of her and presently found a familiar blonde head.

"Naruto!" Yes, perfect. Naruto would be happy to come to her sleepover and nag anyone else, if they didn't already want to, into coming as well.

"Naruto!!" she called a bit louder and ran to catch up with him, seeing as that he didn't seem to hear her before. Still no response.

When she was literally right behind him she grabbed his elbow and spun the surprised boy around to face her. "What are you, deaf?!" She exclaimed. Surely he must've heard her the _third_ time. Not to mention the fourth and fifth.

Naruto blinked in that "I-have-no-idea-what-you-are-talking-about" way.

Sakura let out a silent sigh, and chose to disregard it. Naruto _was_ Naruto afterall. "Nevermind. Anyhow, I'm thinking of having a sleepover tonight. Wanna come?"

Naruto's oblivious expression turned to one of guilt. Surprising Sakura and causing her to narrow her eyes in suspicion.

"Actually… Sakura. Karin-chan's having a party-sleepover-thing tonight that everyone's kinda going to." he started sheepishly. But when he caught Sakura's stormy eyes he quickly tried to explain himself. "B-but we would've invited you

To come too! If we thought you would come… but it seems like every time we invite you to come somewhere with Karin-chan you decline. But I'm sure you can come too!" he ended with a nervous smile, that was still tied to his face while he ran for dear life from the spot that held the pre-explosive pink-haired girl.

Sakura was pissed. That was true, but not for the reason Naruto thought. She was a little ticked about no being invited as well, (and even more mad that she didn't notice her friends hiding anything from her until that moment) but what irked her the most right now was what he subconsciously said.

He had _un-channed _her and _-channed_ Karin.

That bastard.

--

Just because Sakura wasn't from a prestigious clan, did not mean she was ignorant to social rules. She knew that even though Naruto had told her she _could_ come to the party. If she did not formally ask or be invited by the host she would be identified as the "party crasher" .

So, when Sakura took her customary seat next to Ino at the lunch table, those of which had gotten somewhat used to the animosity the rose-hair-colored girls shared, she forced a tight, fraud, almost over-bearing smile. Therefore, Ino winced when she turned to ask her for a napkin. She chose to use Kiba's instead.

As most could easily see, Sakura was _not_ good at faking emotions… at least not for Karin.

'**Come on girl smile, Smile! You gotta look like you actually like her- Now SMILE!!!**'Inner Sakura coached.

'My face doesn't _stretch_ that far!' even her thoughts sounded strained.

After trying for a couple of more moments Sakura just dropped the "friendly" expression altogether. Karin, as much as she hated to admit, wasn't stupid. She knew she was faking and she probably knew why.

But… it wasn't like she could turn her down without looking bad!… So… Wait. What if she played that whole, 'Sorry you asked too late, I don't have enough supplies' routine. No, she'd have to get Karin to invite her. However impossible that seemed to be.

In anyway, she couldn't just flat out ask about the party. She needed to guide the conversation into that direction.

-Oh Crap.-

She'd have to talk- _civily_ even!- with her.

Hmm… how does one make small talk with thy mortal enemy?

Sakura switched her line of vision to Karin, who since the first of the week, had started sitting in her own seat (She totally _did_ cut off his circulation!) .

Compliment her hair? No, it's the same as everyday.

Her hoochie-mama-short-shorts? She'd sound like she was hitting on her!

Her shoes?! Sakura took a quick peep underneath the table. Ugh, those expensive slipper-shoes that _everyone_ has. Even she owned a pair… or two.

… Her ring?

…

…

…

_Hell no. _

_Why_ was it so freakin' hard to start a conversation with this girl!

'**Calm down. Relax. Forget who she is and talk to her like she didn't steal your boyfriend, diss you behind you back and in front of you, make your friends like her maybe more than you, not invite you to her-' **

'OK! I _Get_ it!' Sakura snapped.

Now trying to _forget _all of the things her inner mind had just reminded her of, she closed her eyes and took a long silent breath.

'Act Natural. Act Natural.'

She opened her eyes to see the red-head giving her that _odd_ unwavering although uncomfortable look of hers, from across the table.

A thought popped into her head and she couldn't stop herself from blurting it out loudly, "Are you _CONSTIPATED _or something?!"

Hinata dropped her fork just as it was about to enter her mouth and it landed with and it landed with a heavy _clank_ on the table top. Shika sort of choked on his water as did Tenten (though her choke sounded suspiciously like laughter-hidden-by-coughing). Lee cut himself off mid-sentence. Basically, all action at the table just came to a halt.

'**Well, you certainly were "Natural" enough.'**

Karin, if anything, looked incredibly smug. "Pardon?" she asked, silkily. Yep, Sakura had probably played right into her "Make-me-look-good-and-her-bad" plan.

Part of her wanted to wipe the smirk off her face be replying, 'What are you deaf _and_ dumb? I said you look constipated!' Unfortunately, that would not be the _proper_ way of getting invited to a party.

So instead she gritted her teeth and strung a hand through her short locks, "I said, I like your necklace."

No, her rhyming skills had not improved in the last few weeks.

Karin's face smiled but her eyes laughed in malevolent glee. She fingered the sapphire-jewel encased in white-gold around her neck.

"Oh this? Just a gift from Sa-suke-kun! For our month-a-versary!" she ended this of course with a squeal and a quick (though it seemed pretty _long_ to her) peck on the lips to said boy.

"Sasuke-kun's so sweet with all these expensive gifts- Oh, you know how he is, right, Sakura?" her red pupils were practically dancing.

"Yes." Her voice was hoarse and it was taking all of her will power not to jump the girl. She knew full well (thanks to Ino) that she had only received one item from her ex. The. _stupid.-_ Phew! Calm down. Time for a subject change.

"So I hear you're having some kind of party this weekend…" she began after coughing her voice into a relatively casual tone.

If possible the tension in the air around the table doubled. 'Oh. _Now_ you all remember me, huh?' Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Naruto fidgeting in his seat.

Karin must've decided to play the happy-hostess role. "So you heard?!" she exclaimed cheerfully, "Well it's not _really_ a party. Trust me, sweetie. If it were a party all of Fire country would know! It's just me and a couple of others that are welcomed to stay overnight."

Her right eye wished to twitch so badly. _Sweetie?_ Her fake cordialness was sickening. "Oh really." _And_ she was making her work for it.

"Yep!" she hooked an arm delicately over Sasuke's. "And Sasuke-kun's been gracious enough to let me have it at his house!"

Something inside of her froze right then and there. The last time they had ever had done… well… _anything_ at the Uchiha estate was the night that prompted the Revenge plan. He (and them, technically) had made it law, after figuring out _why_ Itachi wasn't allowed to host overnight guests anymore, that no one besides was to enter the household. Well… no one besides her. She even used to joke about having the "Gold VIP card" to the rest of girls. Now it was like Karin was throwing it in her face that not only did she have the Uchiha-ground privileges but she also held the ability to allow others to enter as well.

Basically in her own slu- err… _sneaky_ way she was dangling her upgraded Platinum in front of her.

"OH? Did you want to come?" Karin asked in her "surprised" voice.

She was dangling it closer, taunting and mocking; encouraging her to snatch and destroy it. Intentionally provoking her to lose her temper in front of the entire lunch room.

But would Sakura take the bait?

"I would've invited you. But you didn't seem to like me very much…" she continued in pity-me tone.

She was virtually _giving_ her the scissors to defile the Platinum with. Her transparent hand grasped the handles lightly, causing imaginary-Karin to smirk.

"Now, what would make you think that, Karin? I'd _love_ to go to your party."

Imaginary-Sakura tossed the tool back to the shocked-fuming Imaginary-Karin. She gave her a falsely sweet smile. Why would she destroy the card that could(and would) be easily replaced(and later get her in trouble for destroying it in the first place), when she had a chance to permanently knock her from the guest list?

Both imaginary girl's expressions mirrored their real counterparts for a split second.

Karin composed herself back into her innocent persona quickly, using a napkin to pat her mouth delicately as a cover-up for this change. Yet, Sakura could still detect the underlying annoyance in her voice, "The party starts at eight. Dress is casual." Before she went back, stiffly, to consuming her food as properly as a Princess.

'Heh. Step one complete. Sakura-1, Karin- '

--

Longest chappie yet! Actually, it would've been a lot longer if I had written the entire chapter but I had to split it in half, otherwise you wouldn't be getting it as soon as you are. The second part is the Party and the actual task! And I'm saying this now, no matter WHAT happens in the next chapter this isn't ItaSaku! If anything, they're just getting a bit closer. A _BIT_ PEOPLE!

Oh, and the last part of this may have been a bit confusing and… it's _supposed _to be that way. Understand? No? Too bad.


	11. Chapter 11

NightDREAMERms: Hello ppls! Ready for part 2? First of all Time to answer some questions!! (Me: Yeah! Questions!)

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedalio- No, Saucy isn't mad, basically because he's ignoring her entire presence. And as for who did the dumpage! Hehe! I never said! _Secret_ -wink-

Cyberchick101- Great Minds think alike! Before I even submitted last chapter I planned on doing what you suggested!

My Corner: Sorry ppls, that I didn't update the last few weeks! I had a whole bunch of…. "extra-curriculars" to do, that'll be explained at the end! However, during that time I did get a few chances to write down stuff I plan to put in this story (Wrote the epilogue!). But I still need a few more pranks!!! -Like Shika's… how do you prank a freakin' genius? OH!!!! I just got an idea, never mind! But really any suggestions? (Lee and Chouji!)

EDIT: Sorry guys, this had so many errors in it(I was trying to finish quickly, so I didn't spell check or anything) I HAD to fix them.

---

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Late Revenge: Chapter 11

--

The music pulsed through the door before Sakura even touched the doorknob.

She pulled back her hand and straightened the bottom of her skirt that reached mid-thigh, nervously. Although she had no clear idea _why_ she was. Maybe it was because she wasn't sure whether or not her outfit could be labeled as "casual".

She had chosen to wear a black mesh undershirt with a silk sleeveless lavender top. The skirt was a mutation of her own; The dark skirt had been frayed on the bottom via a pair of fabric scissors and had a strip of multi-hued violet leather sewn on one side . Her shoes, on the other hand were much less decorated, being ordinary sandals.

She tried to string a hand through her hair like she usually did but had to stop halfway due to the fact that she had her peach hair tied up in a very short ponytail(or rather _pig_tail) with only one bang framing her face so she kind of mirrored Ino's regular look (with less hair, of course). She hesitated placing her palm on the knob once more.

'**What are you nervous for? If you haven't noticed this is a **_**Mission. **_**We're not at this party to have fun!' **

'Paradox.' Sakura quipped back in a tone somewhere in-between amusement and sarcasm. But, her Inner was right. Still something about the entire situation left her feeling uneasy.

_It was the same way and place she entered the other time_.

Ignoring the tingling sensation in her stomach she flung open the door (music practically blasting into her ear drums because of the process) and…

Was met with a chorus of "Heads Up!"

Sakura only had about half a second to acknowledge the football heading directly for her forehead, in order to jump out of the way in time.

Unfortunately, Sakura's mind was working a tad slower than usual that day.

Clunk. Smack dab in the middle.

'Black dots… lots of… pretty moving black dots….'

She felt her body begin to sway and her hand loosened it's grip on the designer hand bag her sleeping bag already fallen on the floor.

Just as her knees started to give out, she felt a mat of hair brush the back of her legs.

Instead of falling to the ground as she thought she would she stumbled forward in rebound, her lower back hitting some group of matter behind her. This time being caught in the forearms by semi-rough hands.

"T-thanks." she managed to mumble out, blinking blankly up at the face of a nervously grinning, Kiba.

"Heh, no problem." He replied scratching the back of his unhooded head, embarrassedly.

She leaned back into the mass of fur the she now recognized as 'Big Akamaru.'

Rubbing her now pulsing forehead that was quickly starting to develop into a splitting headache, she scratched the back of the grateful Aka's ear with the other. The dog _had_ saved her from cracking her head on the corner of the dresser behind her; he deserved a little attention. She frowned at Kiba in pain and a tinge of anger. "God… what kind of moronic _idiot_ throws a football inside a house full of people, anyway." Oh. Her thumb ran over the injured spot. A bump was starting to form. _Great_.

Kiba grinned that nervous, canine-showing, smile of his. Suspicious. "Who knows, who cares! You're okay and that's all that matters!" he spoke quickly and in a higher than normal tone of voice. Either the side of his nose was really itchy, or he was hiding something.

It was at that moment, a familiar voice called from some unseen room of the estate. _"Oi, Kiba! Did you get the bal-" _

"BALLERINA TUTU? No! I don't know _why_ you wanted to wear it anyway, Naruto!" The brunette interrupted, loudly, his face contorted into a weird form.

"_Huh? What the hel-" _

Sakura watched, confusedly as both boy and dog high-tailed it out of the room.

She blinked twice and listened to the echoing conversation.

"_Shut up, Uzamaki! Monster-strength Sakura's gonna kill me!"_ Kiba in a supposed "hushed" voice.

"_Ow! Doesn't mean you have to hit_ me_ for your own sucky throwing skills-_ Eh! OW! _What the heck was _that_ for?!_"

"_I'm_ not _sucky!_…_I-it was just… slightly off…." _

"_If you call eleven feet, slight." _

"_What'd you say!-" _

"_Did you at least_ get_ the football?"_ Someone else interrupted; sounded like a Hyuuga.

"_No. Sorry, I wanted to live for a few more years." _

The voices continues on, but became muffled with the final closing of the door.

As soon as she was sure that they could no longer see her ( or in Neji's case, was too preoccupied with other activities) she dropped the clueless act.

Out of nowhere (a.k.a. her secret compartment!) she pulled out the missing football. She wasn't stupid; she _knew_ who threw the ball all along.

'OH look, its signed.' she remarked dryly. Observing the deep chocolate leather football with almost indistinguishable black ink, she twirled it between her fingers.

'Tsk, such a waste.' She sighed, before abruptly, hurling it out a nearby window. They had to suffer the consequences of pegging her.

"SAKURA!"

She jumped, startled that someone had caught her in the act. Fortunately, it was only oblivious Ino.

Being the extravagant girl that she was, Ino had chosen to wear a very ostentatious blood red Chinese style dress with velvet ebony lining. Splashes of the same deep color sprayed, not sparingly or crowded, but beautifully spaced to form intricate floral patterns throughout the material. On her left a gold plated dragon crawled up her side, resting it's fierce-looking head on her shoulder and curling it's elongated tail along the trim of the back of her outfit, ending inches before a narrow slit that turned her modest dress that dangled a tad below her knees into a more scandalous arrangement; easily allowing the higher part of her thigh to be shown whenever she moved. From the way she winked at some nearby guys drinking at the concession stand, she was both aware and proud of the fact.

Her blonde hair had been styled to form one long bang across her forehead (Sakura suspected a slight henge, knowing full well that no matter what the occasion, her friend would _never_ chop off her precious hair again. Not after the **disastrous** result in middle school when Sakura herself had cut her previously waist length hair to a cute- just above the shoulder style and cheerfully gloated over her new look. Ino had agitatedly retorted that she could master any and _every_ look and set out to prove it. Oh how _wrong_ she was.) The rest of her hair was wrapped in an origami shape that could only be achieved with a collapsible hair wrap or a master celebrity hair stylist. Blue eyes had been enhanced by almost unnoticeable light purple sparkles that ran along the edge of her eyelids to an angelic-like wave at the corners. Shine-cherry lipstick completed facial accessories, shimmering even in the dim party lighting.

In short, Ino Yamanaka had no idea what the definition of the term "casual" was.

Nonetheless, she _did_ look good.

"Nice Pretzel." she commented mischievously grinning and twirling the little pink spring on the back of her head.

Catching onto the subject, Ino cocked her head to the side and blew her bangs out of her face, "Nice of you to copy _my_ style." she shot back evenly; meeting her stare head on.

Tense silence reigned as they continued glaring at one another for roughly five seconds before simultaneously releasing the giggles they held within. In some odd way, Sakura had complimented Ino and she had returned the favor. Both had been verbalized as insults, but that was how their weird "best-friendship" worked.

"Cool party, huh?!" Ino asked- err… actually shouted. Seemed like some random partier had felt the need to turn the blaring stereo to it's maximum.

Glancing around, Sakura fully took in the site before her. The normally quaint and simple yet elegant living room (well the _first_ living room in any way) had been… most accurately defined as, turned inside out and torn apart. The soft tanish white sofa was literally flipped upside down (3 sophies were lounging on it as if there was no difference) and featured in the center of the room diagonally facing the giant flat screen T.V., that she knew for a fact hadn't been there before. Black lights were set almost strategically placed around the room; on the floor, walls, and even a couple on the ceiling. Twin tables along with high stools had been most likely borrowed from the kitchen and transformed into a serve-yourself bar located opposite of the entrance (She was almost positive she could see Chouji chowing down and Shika, looking bored, over there). Wrappers, cups, cans, and crumbs littered the floor, indicating that the food was indeed popular; Just as multi-colored test-tube glasses indicated that illegal sake was also present. Glittering party streamers were strung around the enclosed space, most spinning from wither the air conditioner or from being bombarded by excited dancing party-goers.

"Isn't this a little much? I though this was going to be a small party." she replied.

Ino's brow furrowed and she cupped an ear. "What?!"

Sakura raised her voice and shifted close to her, "I said, wasn't this supposed to be a _small_ party?!"

"Oh, but it _is_ small."

And here she was thinking Karin might've been arrested.

Sakura pivoted to her left to face the party-host. Her flame-colored locks had been flat-ironed and curled in an upward flare. But most noticeably the ends of her hair had been dyed light sapphire as were the two long strands that framed her face. She was dressed in a midnight-blue halter top that had silver umm… hanging-edge things-

(Hey! She wasn't a fashion-expert!

'**Could've fooled me; how your going on and on about **_**everybody**_**'s outfits.' **

'I can't help it. Everyone looks so different!_'_)

-. It was obviously worn to emphasize her gift-necklace that currently hung around her body glittered sprayed neck. Her only bottoms was a mini _mini_ jean miniskirt that really should be referred to as the scrap off a demolished jacket sleeve. It covered _**nothing**_.

Being polite (in front of Ino), Sakura placed a cordial smile on her face. "There has to be at least sixty people in this room alone, Karin" she responded good-naturedly. The wicked witch of the west had appeared out of freaking thin air.

"Yeah, I know. Pretty tiny." she replied with a straight face before sipping the diet coke can that materialized (like she did) out of nowhere.

Sakura studied her facial expression.

Holy crap… she was _serious_.

If this was 'tiny' what in the world was "regular". let alone large!

'**Mission, **_**Mission!**_**' **

'Shut up! I didn't forget…'

"Are all these people staying the night?" she asked in a worried-for-you tone. In reality, she was worried for herself. Every extra person there added another 7 risk of failing her task.

"Oh _no_!" Karin laughed, for once actually relieving Sakura, "Like I said before, only a select few. The rest of these loser-sluts can go crash somewhere else." she paused, a sneaky smile forming on her lips. "But I guess… I can make _one_ exception." she finished, staring directly into Sakura's green eyes.

Sakura didn't have to alter her line of vision to know that Ino had silently excused herself a few moments ago. Karin wouldn't dare ruin her image in front of Konoha's number one gossip.

'_Don't lose your temper. Don't lose you temper…'_

"Making new friends I see, Karin." an unfamiliar amused voice called out knocking Sakura out of her calming technique.

Karin scowled at something behind Sakura. "What are you doing here, _Suigetsu_." she spat, pronouncing his name as if it were an insult.

Sakura quickly swerved, wanting to find out who else possibly caused Karin to display her true colors. Err.. Take away the 'else' as well. Karin was actually showing real emotions, not just the spite Sakura received.

Suigetsu, it turned out was the captain of the Boy's swim team and had the lean yet sculpted body to prove it (She wasn't looking. No, _seriously_. For once she really wasn't. He was just flashing poses a lot- More than Lee… and that was saying something.). He had silky wavy shoulder length light aqua-white hair that was rather uneven but still a style in an peculiar way. Two medium-length bangs crossed in between stormy mesmerizing blue eyes. He would have been mind-blowingly handsome if it weren't for the razor-sharp teeth that glinted with when he grinned a crooked smile. A picture of Kisame wearing the same expression flashed through her mind.

He stepped forward and around Sakura, swinging an arm over the disgusted Karin's shoulders who huffed indignantly. "Aww! Kare-bear! What ever happened to that cute little crush you had on me?" he cooed, grinning implike.

Stone red eyes narrowed as she shrugged his arm off of her as if revolted by his touch. "It died along with that nickname when you _cheated _on me, remember?"

Sakura did a double-take. _WOAH._ That was what?- Dramatic _and _Situational Irony, right there?! From the angry way she answered, it would seem like the break-up had really affected her. But then…why would she-

Suigetsu frowned thinking for a moment before raising his eyebrows in realization; the grin returned, "Oh _her_! Lighten up, Kare. It was only a one-night stand with a pretty girl… Speaking of pretty girls…" his eyes glided slowly to hers and Sakura had the grace to blush. She thought she had been forgotten. "How about I hook up with this one?"

'**Sorry sweetie! This one ain't on the market!' **Inner Sakura replied for her, but Sakura didn't respond. The question wasn't directed to her and she was busy watching Karin's reaction.

The hostess eyes first flared in rage her entire face displaying an unidentifiable emotion , then the light died away being replaced with obviously fake indifference (What was she hiding behind that mask?). "Do as you please." she spoke before stalking, stiffly, away. The remnants of her tone still chilled the air around them. One thing she was positive about- there was something definitely deeper about Karin… something she kept carefully concealed.

Sakura' cheeks pinkened once again as she felt blue eyes locked on her. She looked up from her ponderings. Oh right; Suigetsu. He was _leering _at her. Sakura took a few steps back nervously, him following and matching her every move, until her back met a wall, triggering a small yelp on her part.

She saw his smile twitch upward into a smirk. He placed an arm on one side of her head, successfully trapping her in. In this game he was the shark and she was the tiny pink fish.

Her womanly instincts were screaming for her to make a break for it.

"Hey-/Umm-" they spoke at the same time. Suigetsu grinned, this one less animalistic than the previous ones and actually made him appear rather handsome, and gentlemanly motioned for her to go first.

However she for one, did not like to doubt her instincts.

Her eyes darted around frantically. "I-err… Bathroom!" she blurted out, before ducking under his arm and scampering away as quickly as she could.

'**Smooth.'**

Ignoring her Innerself's sarcasm, Sakura sped up the stairs and down a random hallway only stopping when she was sure, that Water-boy wouldn't catch up to her. Unlike downstairs, the upstairs was in it's original form with absolutely no evidence of the party below. This was where most (minus Sasuke) of the Uchiha family's bedrooms were. She hadn't been up on the second floor since… Suddenly fascinated, Sakura perked her head up. She couldn't believe she forgot. And just by coincidence she was outside the very door.

--

Sakura swung the door open without hesitation or precaution, neglecting the common rule of courtesy that was knocking.

"Freeze." A cold voice ordered.

On instinct, she stopped mid-step her hand still behind in the air from where it was used to shut the door. Through her bang, that was currently obscuring her view, she could see one Itachi Uchiha, dressed a bit more casually (no red and black cloak, just a really navy blue, almost-black shirt…. Yes, Inner Sakura _is drooling)_ than normal, sitting cross-legged on his bed, pointing a green and purple-

Sakura's turquoise eyes widened a bit as she recognized his "weapon" of choice. Her lip quivered. And she tried unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh.

"I-is that a ….silly-string launcher?!" she asked through a fit of giggles. Some how seeing one of the most "supposed" dangerous men in genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu in Leaf using a child's toy as a defense mechanism was …just… Hilarious!

The elder of the Uchiha brothers lowered the barrel muttering an almost inaudible "It's just you." though it didn't sound at all relieved or happy about the fact.

Surprisingly through her own laughter she heard him clearly. "Who'd you think it was? And what's with your 'weapon'?" she asked the remnants of her laughing session still shining strongly through her voice. She was now seated on the floor next to his Uchiha-symboled bed where her mirth had deposited her.

"All of my actual weapons for the time being are confiscated." he replied rather gruffly looking ahead at a muted T.V. screen that Sakura only just then noticed was in the room. "Because of a certain _incident_ that happened nine years ago."

Sakura noted that he did not answer her first question but did not comment. She was more focused on his response.

"_If _this_ is what you're going to do when Sasuke has his sleepovers, you won't be having them at the same time as him anymore."_

Wow. Almost a decade later and not only are they still enforcing that rule but they upgraded it enough to take away his weapons… and keep his door unlocked (otherwise she doubted he actually _would_ allow it to be open for anyone to come in) She would literally _die_ if her mom was that strict. Maybe it had something to do with the Clan thingy again. Neji and Hinata's family's were a lot more serious when it came to grades and such. But really shouldn't there be a limit or something? Then again… Itachi wasn't exactly known to follow orders.

Her pupils scanned over his person carefully and thoroughly over every detail, like a well-trained martial artist (hey she _did_ learn something in her many years or required P.E. classes.). A small glint confirmed her suspicions.

"_All_ you weapons? Really?" she drawled mischievously. Itachi quirked an eyebrow. "Then what's that in your back pocket?"

His response was a grunt as he pushed the kunai handle deeper into his pants and out of view, all the while grumbling something about how cloaks made everything easier to hide.

Sakura grew a vicious smirk on her face as her thoughts drifted back to his previous weapon. It was not often one got a chance to taunt an Uchiha (especially one who purposely misguided your friends into thinking untrue things; she hadn't forgot about that).

"But really, silly-string? That's the best you could do? Itachi Uchiha, of the infamous Akatsuki with a toddler's toy. Mm-mm. How the might have fallen!" she mocked, grin gleaming when she saw the almost unnoticeable Uchiha-bro-twitch-of-eye(r) (restricted only to Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha when they are RPO (Really. Pissed. Off.) ) . But did that stop her? Psh.-NO! "I mean even a _paintball_ gun would've bee-"

_SHWSSHHHH!!!!_ Click.

The pink-haired girl spat the remaining goop out of her mouth, crossed her arms, and glared darkly up at the triumphant looking Uchiha, who returned the mini-gun to it's former position to the left of him. The glare itself being thrown off and negated by the slimy green substance oozing through her locks and onto her eyelids.

She could practically imagine the stupid victorious-

'**You do see what's happening here don't you?' **

Sakura blinked all previous murderous thoughts from her head.

'Huh? What's happening?'

'**Itachi, he's acting… different.' **

Different? Her sea-green eyes automatically traveled to his, which were locked on the currently green and white screen (What in the world is he watching?) . Now that she thought about it… he _did_ look a bit well… calmer. Not to say he wasn't normally. Just a different type of calm. His hair was still in a ponytail but it wasn't as tight and defined as normal. He had lazily stretched out on his bed with his upper body propped up by a few pillows. He still looked aware enough to shoot a shuriken at any moment but he was more… more… _relaxed_ than he was in public.

'**Well he is in his **_**own**_** room.' **

'Yeah, but now that you mention it. I don't think that's the only thing. He's not as… serious as before.'

Even the lines below his eyes seemed less sharp and defiant. He wasn't using the emotionless mask ™ like at school. He got annoyed, complained, and had shared a few of his thoughts. Heck , he hadn't even ordered her to _leave_ yet.

He's acting like a.. a-

'**Normal senior guy?' **

'Err… yeah!' That's about right. She took another quick glance to Itachi, oblivious (Wow! That's one way she'd never thought she'd use describe him) to their conversation., flipped the channel.

'**See I have this theory-' **

'Uh-oh.' What's she gonna rant about _now_?

'**(Glare) -That he's got two sides, the Grizzly Bear Exterior Phase- Teddy Bear decrypted state theory." **

'… Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear?'

'**No! Not the dumb jump rope song! The Grizzly Bear- Ugh, Just call it the GB-TB. It's like this: At school Itachi's all Unemotional-piece-of-crap-that-leans-on-stuff-looking-cool right?' **

'Yeah, pretty much.' She liked that metaphor of him.

'**And here out of public eye, he's **_**still**_** a piece of crap but less concealing of his emotions, correct?' **

'I think I see where you're heading with this. And if you dare say anything like, "He's a Grizzly bear on the outside and a Teddy bear on the inside" I swear, I'll find someway to slap you.' She got enough of that sappy stuff on T.V. You know when the cool sarcastic dude suddenly does a Zetsu and develops and sweet and caring emotional side. Ugh, totally _kills_ the character!… and episode… and show, really….

'**Fine. How 'bout around his family and most others he's cold but with… people who don't care about his rep like the Akatsuki(including you) he's not as much.' **

'Hmm… And you had _when _to come up with this 'amazing' theory?'

'**Plenty of time. Plen-ty-of-Time. The truth is that Itachi's just a cute little bunny hiding under a rough outer side.' **She ended quickly and cheekily.

"Itachi is not a freakin' BUNNY!"

The ebony-haired male visibly stiffened. Silence, besides the muffled beat of the music and cricket chirps.

'Oh my- Please… _please_ tell me I didn't…'

'**Yep, you **_**definitely**_** said that outloud!' **Inner Sakura exclaimed cheerfully, before disappearing abruptly from the void that was her mind, her laughter echoing after her. Coward.

"Uhh…" was her very articulate response, as she stared wide-eyed back at the elder Uchiha (Whose expression _really_ couldn't be deciphered accurately at that time.)

To her greatest fortune, Itachi's neck jerked to the left and in the blink of an eyes his hand had darted in and out of his pocket and a shuriken had been embedded into the wall to the upper right of a dark-tinted window (Where the heck did he get a _shuriken_ from?)

It was quiet again and Sakura's eyes shifted back and forth from the Uchiha's blank face to the even blanker window pane.

…

…

…

Was something supposed to-

Suddenly, the window was thrown open and in jumped one, two, three, _four_ red-clouded cloaks. Quite boring really once you get used to them. All in that simple high-neck style with bubbly (rather girlish) looking clouds outlined in white, floating around with one red zipper going from the top of the black garment to the bottom, splitting it in half. When she got hers she'd-

'"**When you get yours" What happened to **'**B-but… I don't **_**want**_** to join the Akatsuki. It's Evil!"?'' **(Look who came back)

'She died the second new Sakura discovered the unexpected advantages of vanilla ice-cream.'

'… **Understood.' **

Seeing them standing all together made Sakura realize how disproportional the group appeared to be. One blue-toned man who resembled a shark; pointed teeth, gills on either sides of his head, spikey dark-blue hair, Gi-hugic muscled body, big-ass bandaged homicidal sword (that was currently MIA) and all. Freaking _gorgeous_ Itachi with long ebony hair, slit-line-things under his eyes that glowed a malevolent red circling between which were dark comma like shapes and a track record that made grown men wet themselves The one who towered over all the others, Zetsu, whose face was one-half light green the other light green and suffered (or gained) from MPD. A shorter red-haired dude… who she hadn't seen before… and-

"Deidara!" Sakura exclaimed, cheerfully, the most normal of the Akatsuki she had encountered thus far. Though that was not the reason she cheered.

The blonde paused, blinking; either confused about why she was so "happy" to see him or bout her slime-covered appearance. Nonetheless he grinned back at her.

However the moment his eyes closed to form an elated expression-

Click-Click. _SHWSSHHHH!!!!_ (Distantly, Inner Sakura speculated how Itachi managed to muffle his sound to simply one click afterward.)

'AY!" the man shouted, blocking his face with his arm and stepping back. Sakura held the button down aiming between the eyes until the pressure died down and the arc of the squishy substance neared the floor.

"God help you, Deidara, " she glared at the Akatsuki who now mirrored her unclean state,"If you _ever_ send me one of your stupid birds again…!"

Deidara grumbled a discontented "Yeah...yeah." as Kisame let out a hearty laugh and Itachi, who had tensed the moment she stole his "only defense" (how she managed to steal _anything_ from him, will remain a mystery) unlaxed back into his bed pillow an amused smirk residing on his lips. Zetsu _feigned_ indifference (Yes, Feigned.) And the last guy, the one she could not recognize, had a peculiar look on his face. Oddly it wasn't that Sakura _couldn't_ interpret it, she didn't know _how_.

'Where is your partner, Zetsu-san?" he questioned in a quiet voice. His opaque brown eyes seemed half-lidded as if he were tired, but his stance indicated otherwise; straight-up, arms-crossed. Head level with the ground essenced defiance; fully in control. (Much like the general you-know _aura_ of the Hyuuga or Uchiha clans)

Kakuzu needed more physical power than just Hidan." the gardener replied, saying only what was necessary and not providing any other details Much to Sakura's annoyance. Apparently, _she_ was the only one who did not understand this message.

Luckily for her, Kisame untucked his arms, placing one lazily behind his head (it seemed like an automatic reflex as his hand reached to the empty sheath on his back, only once realizing it was empty did it move to the back of his neck) "Kakuzu's on another one of his get rich quick schemes, huh?" There, that's all she needed. Was that so hard

"He better not," Deidara snorted, he had most of the silly-string off but a big glob of the stuff was stuck on the top of his back ponytail. Not that she was planning on _telling_ the binder-blower-upper. "I refuse to eat nothing but sushi for a month again." Grunts of agreement rained all around. And once again, Sakura was lost, but this time no one was willing to explain.

"What are you all doing here, anyways?" Sakura bit out, subtly surprising a few of the room's occupants. If it was one thing that irked her most, it was being left out of _anything_. Ever since she was a young child, she had had the pet-peeve. That in itself was half the reason why she was placed in advanced classes. Not because of curiosity or natural talent, but because the _irritation _of not knowing propelled her to gain information.

Kisame took a step forward, "_We_ are Akatsuki, we go where ever we want whenever we want. However, you… Haruno…" he trailed off an oddly sly look on his face.

Itachi turned towards her, frowning lightly, "Why _are_ you here, Sakura?"

Sakura took a moment to analyze the fact that the way the two referred to her were opposite of what she expected. (Inner Sakura toasting herself on reaching first name basis in such a short time. Never did she _fathom_ the thought that the first name status may have been a show of disrespect from his part.) Then focused on the question. Why _did_ she come up there?

A flash of glinted crystal blue eyes.

"Right, him." she muttered, dejectedly.

"Hmm?"

"Oh, umm, I mean, I thought Zetsu would come and I uh- wanted to know what the deadline for my task to be completed."

Yes, she had girl problems. Yes she wanted someone to talk to about them. _Hell no_ were they going to be these guys (keyword there being 'guys')

"For someone so prepared to meet us, you sure were surprised when we arrived." Deidara commented offhand, smirking proudly when he received the response-glare.

"You are to have delivered the insects directly to me by 3:00 a.m." Zetsu announced, ignoring the exchange.

"Three a.m.?!" Sakura repeated.

Zetsu's expression did not change; it rarely did. "Yes, that seems like a sufficient time- _Is there a problem?_"

"But the party ends at _two._" Sakura stressed. "By the time all the guests leave it'll be about 2:30 and me and my friends are teen-a-gers. They won't fall asleep 'til like what- 4 or 5? And _that_'s the only time Shino takes them off!" There used to be a time when he would Never take them off actually. That was until one sleepover night when Tenten groggily arose to a rather large one of his bugs resting peacefully on her forehead. The subsequent scream and smack woke everyone in the vicinity. Needless to say, Shino began bottling his bugs, whenever around the weapons-girl for extended periods.

Zetsu continued to keep complete eye contact with her, possibly reconsidering.

"Not my problem, kunoichi." he drawled after some time.

Well… she said _possibly_.

"But-" Sakura had been already to rebut when simultaneously all five men either constrained or cocked their head to the side.

"What's happening, _now_?" Sakura inquired bitterly, crossing her arms. Another thing to add to growing to do list: Increase her awareness of surroundings. Being the weak-(cough)_least powerful_ of the group was not a very savory position anywhere.

Deidara strode over and grabbed her upper-arm to hoist her upward, "Female, Current Age 14, Height 5'3, Weight 106 lbs."

Sakura scowled at him, tugging unsuccessfully away, "What are you, a stalker?!"

The blonde merely rolled his eyes, "Not _you_." he replied in an exasperated sigh.

Sakura inclined her head awkwardly to look at the man shoving her through the door. "Then _who_- Hello."

Sakura cut off her almost rant abruptly, almost missing the sound of a door slamming closed a split-second after.

She was face to face, with Hinata Hyuuga. After just coming out of a bedroom she wasn't supposed to be in, arguing with someone she wasn't supposed to know, covered in random spidey-spray with about five other Akatsuki members (who were banned from being there that night) only a door's width away.

''Kay big brain. How are you going to save me this time?'

-----

I'm SO sorry peeps! I said I was going to have the mission show up this chapter, however if that were to occur you wouldn't be reading this chapter as soon(coughcoughLATEcough) as you are. I hope the extra-lengthiness and detailedness of this chappie makes up for it chronic tardiness! I got sick for awhile and wasn't even able to focus on what ppl were saying to me and had to stay home, let alone type this stuff. Seriously, I tried and almost threw up (Lovely, little mental image there.) Though ironically, during the time of my illness I received a ton of ideas for this and- oh. Right. _surprise_. Can't tell you… yet.)

Oh and be thankful to Jasmine a.k.a. Jaz. Without her, consistently bugging/whining/screaming for me to update I doubt this would be uploaded. (Also your reviews were awesome! They were the deciding vote!)

So next chapter, the REAL mission… I hope…

nightDREAMERms


	12. Chapter 12

nightDREAMERms: Yes! Finally! Officially as of last chapter, this story has defeaten NSS in terms of review quantity! More, I think I've developed a sufficient plot: Expect the unexpected, watch for hints within each chapter, read in-between the li- Oh, who am I kidding! Most of you've already figured out most of the "secrets" haven't you!

And I'd also like to say it right now, THIS IS NOT A LEExSAKURA fic. Sakura is and Will be alone for the remainder of this fic. And now a bunch of you are scratching your heads wondering what the heck is she going on about. You'll see.

Oh! One last thing! Venny9o6 congrats! That's actually very close to what I was planning to happen! Great minds think alike!

Another last last thing! I had to write now or I fear I'll explode. Even _I _bust out laughing whilst writing the bed scene you shall read in couple of minutes.

--- _Por ultimo(Spanish!!)_, I apologize for all mistakes in grammar, spelling, repetition and other stuffs, because I haven't give it a once over as of yet. I wanted you guys to get it as quickly as possible. EDIT: I've editted out the most horrid mistakes now. But I have no doubt that it's still no where near perfect. Hope this a bit better.

--

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Late Revenge: Chapter Twelve

--

You can learn a lot about someone by the way they pop their popcorn….. Okay, you can stop laughing now, it's _true_.

Hinata always stood with one arm resting tentatively on the handle of the microwave. Ears alert to keep track of popping noises, and eyes constantly flicking from the growth of the paper bag in the tinted window and the steadily decreasing time labeled on the LCD screen.

Ino hauled herself onto the counter swinging her legs care freely over the edge. In her hand would be her lovely decorated cellular phone, tenderly addressed as "My Baby", as her fingers moved in an almost automatic pattern of waves, typing letters and numbers. Discreetly and periodically, she'd glance at the microwave to her left.

Tenten would rip off the plastic coverings of the popcorn bag and toss it carelessly into the microwave, not bothering to properly unfold it. Barely remembering to press the "POPCORN" button, before striding away.

-Note-: NEVER let Tenten pop your popcorn!

'And me…'

Sakura sat… or more accurately stretched out on the kitchen floor, one leg propped up against turquoise tile and the other lying horizontally beside it. Her arms were wrapped tightly and stiffly around her chest as her back slumped against a low cupboard.

She sent the slowly rotating bag a standard all-purpose glare.

'How'd I get stuck with this job? It's so _boring_…' Sakura inquired loftily, sighing and allowing her body to scoot down even father.

'**Just be grateful that this is all you got assigned to do after **_**I**_**, the "incompetent" one, saved **_**your**_** sorry butt.'** Inner Sakura chirped.

Sakura simply scowled and glared blankly at the space in front of her.

'**Arrogant, eh? Guess that means we'll have to use a… FLASHBACK!' **

'Wah? WAIT NO! I-"

_. : Flashback : ._

"Sakura?"

"-Hello." _Oh shjktmsflmn! _

The pale girl standing before her looked significantly different than normal. She had a… younger-age hairstyle. Dark ebony hair was parted in the center so that her bangs framed her forehead rather than conceal it. The part ran all the way down to the base of her hairline at the back of her head where it split into two, low, straight (and Hyuuga-silky!) ribboned pontails that led down to the small of her back. She wore a dark emerald-colored and large-beaded necklace that hung over a lighter green over the shoulder top. Under that was a much deeper green plaid skirt that stopped before half-thigh length, the rest of her legs being mostly covered by moss-green stockings (those almost reaching the bottom of her knees). Very light rose blush had been applied to the apples of the cheeks as well as a thin layer of mascara to the eyes, causing her normally passive and blending pupils to deepen and pop.

It was a look that… quite honestly would look like a skimpy school-girl Halloween costume if put on either her or Ino, but just _worked_ for Hinata.

However, at the moment, that wasn't the main issue.

'What do I do?! _What do I do?!_' Sakura screamed frantically inside her own head, as her outershell forced a calm serious expression to form on her face while Hinata asked about her purpose for being their and who was she talking to.

'**Calm down!' Inner Sakura hissed before continuing in a smirk-filled tone, 'I've got … a plan.' **

Sakura made the small error of showing her inner thoughts on her face and rolled her eyes; her frenzic mode temporarily removed, 'You're "plans" are as incompetent as you are.'

As Inner Sakura spluttered, Sakura refocused on the patiently waiting Hyuuga. "Oh, I was just using the bathroom. The ones downstairs were all full." she lied easily, sticking with the original story she had told Suigetsu. It was probably true anyways, with the number of people attending the party.

Hinata's eyebrows knitted together, "But I thought the Uchiha and Hyuuga compounds were built similarly, with practically the same structure."

Yes, as owners of two of the highest-ranked businesses in the Fire Country the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans had both chosen to hire the best architect of his time to construct their mansions: A man, that only went by the name of Yamato, his true identity has yet to be discovered, who only worked for the elite. Because of the relative closeness of the jobs in time and their locations, quite literally across the entire city of Konoha from each other, the architect had come up with the idea of having each building being an exact mirror image of the other. As if to present a parallel yet at the same time contrast; everything inside the two buildings(in terms of location) were opposite of the other. It was a very creative idea, Sakura had thought once hearing the story. Sasuke, on the other hand, had commented that he believed that the architect was just a lazy bum who took the easy way out of designing two houses by just flipping the transparency of the planned design over instead of coming up with something different.

Confused at how this related to anything they were talking about, Sakura chose to nod curiously, "They are. Why?"

"Well according to what I know from the Hyuuga complex, the only bathroom on the second floor should be that one." Hinata clarified, pointing to a room at the end of hallway. It's door was wide-open revealing a small faded green print on the walls. A light blue colored bottle of lotion(Ethereal Brilliance; _Ohh! _She LOVED that stuff!), lay artistically placed on a slightly protruding counter. Behind that one could see the end of a matching toilet seat and cover. It was most definitely a bathroom.

"Well… uh-umm…" Sakura stuttered to stall, she'd got her.

'Crud! Crud! Crud!' Was all Sakura could chant. Why, oh why, wouldn't her precious brain with it's many _many_ excuses come back to her?

'**Since you, **_**obviously**_** need my help.'** Inner Sakura sighed before whispering(For no other reason than for her own amusement, Sakura had to guess, for there was no one who could over hear them) to her outer counterpart.

'That's never going to work.' Sakura concluded shortly, after hearing what her innerself had to say.

She heard Inner Sakura let out a low grunt and an 'Oh! Just try it!' before somehow using her mysterious powers to knock her back into the real world.

Shutting her eyes for the briefest of moments, Sakura collected all of her thoughts.

'Just go with it, Sakura.' It wasn't like she had any other plan of action anyways.

She reopened her eyes, now in "actress-mode", with all other needless emotions temporarily locked away.

'Remember, think like Ino. How would Ino tell it.' A small smile started to form as an idea began to take shape in her mind. She quickly smothered it, however, with a look of calm indifference.

"Yeah I know." Sakura-actress shrugged.

Hinata frowned, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately, "But- then why are you-"

Sakura interrupted her with a silent "No" headshake. Sighing largely, she put her hands up 'You caught me.' fashion. "Do you really want to hear the story? It's really _you-know_." She admonished, gesturing with her hands.

"No, I don't mind." the pale-eyed girl answered, politely as ever(a clever cover-up for her true prying mind), probably thinking her "you-know" meant _long. _Heh, poor girl.

"O-ka-ay." Sakura sung back in 'Don't sat I don't say I didn't warn you' tone.

_Sakura briskly walked up the handle-lined fleet of stairs, sandals clacking the entire way and jogged down the rest of the hallway, rapping her fist on the closed door at the end. _

"_Someone's in here!" a feminine voice rang out, causing Sakura's entire form to deflate. Did _everyone_ have a freakin' bladder problem at this party?! _

_Every. Single. Toilet. Was currently occupied. _

_And unfortunately, her bowels had chosen that _this_ was the perfect time to send it's owner into a state of hysteria._

_She began pacing, erratically, up and down the hall frantically humming the "Gotta Go" commercial tune aloud as she went. She was on her third oval up the hallway, when a muffled sound caught her attention. _

_A tad eager, to get a certain relieving problem off of her mind, Sakura back tracked to the door she was pretty much positive the noise came from. Sure enough, putting her to the door she could hear someone's pain-filled groans. Medic-instincts kicked in and her hand found itself yanking the door open whilst inquiring in an alarmed voice, "Is everything in!-… here…" Her voice broke and trailed off as her lightly mascara-ed eyes took in the scene. _

_They were going at it like _dogs.

_As if there was no freaking tomorrow! _

_Two figures lay sprawled on top one another on the four-poster bed. Apparently the moan she had detected was one from pleasure rather than pain. The couple's legs were tangled in-between one another and the discarded sheet below them. Groping, hair-fondling, groaning, rolling; the works. It was as if their lips were permanently glued onto each other, if not for the short yet frequent interruptions of heated gasps in the form of the names "Kisa-kun" and "Dei-chan!" _

_One of the couple's hands removed itself from it's spot at the small of the back of their lover and lowered itself down low. _Belt_ level.- _

"S-STOP! _Please! _No more! No more!" Hinata cried out with such internal pain, that Sakura almost felt guilty for her playing on the girl's number one weakness. Yet at the same time, the embarrassment red the her ebony-locked friend's face dyed itself to incited her to laugh.

'**Laughing at other's discomfort? Tsk. Tsk. Akatsuki's rubbing off on you.' **

Ignoring the taunt, Sakura forced herself to blink innocently in a confused manner- outwardly. Inwardly, on the other hand, Sakura was quite pleased that her story had worked out the way it was intended to. Also she was relieved; in truth, she had not thought of an ending for her story.

Zoning back into her surroundings, she noted that the Hyuuga was long gone.

Sakura allowed herself to smirk openly. She wouldn't be saying anything to Anybody, anytime soon.

"Well," a deep voice drawled behind her, causing her to jump and spin around simultaneously to see- none other than Uchiha Itachi in his all his smuggy glory.

His eyes held an odd glitter. She didn't like it. "That was a rather… _interesting_ tale"

Her first immediate reaction once realizing that _everyone_ in the other room had heard her perverted little narrative was not one of her own control.

Her entire face went dark, _way_ darker than Hinata's had ever hoped to. But then, an odd flight of pleasure surged through her. Some of the most stoic men she knew were fighting to suppress their amusement and hold their perfected indifferent masks. Hey… maybe she even got Zetsu in a good enough mood to give her a time-extension on her task! Wait, uh-oh. She did a quick scan of those before her; There were two missing.

Almost like magic, she received a strange and unsavory prickling sensation run chills up and down her arms. A tell-tale sign of darkly intent stares.

She turned, extremely hesitantly and reluctantly around to the glint-eyed faces of one shark-man and one bomb-expert.

"H-hey. Dei-kun! Kisame-kun!" she began, her words muddled in involuntary laughter. She took a few steps to her right. "You guys know I didn't really mean it… I just needed names of people I know Hinata wouldn't recognize and yours were the first to umm…- first to come up." She smiled cautiously. "No hard feelings, right?" She asked, offering her hand out.

Deidara didn't spare a glance to the supposed handshake of forgiveness, instead he continued staring at her with a look so dangerously dark that she feared her hand was shaking. Eventually he turned to his entitled lover, "I don't know, Kisame, should we boil or _fry_ her first?" The man in question merely cracked his neck, stretching it in preparance.

What does one do when they have insulted not one, but _two_ Akatsuki members in one of the worst ways known to man.

They _run! _They run for their _life_!!!!

And this is what Sakura did. She galloped back down the stairs. Back to where there was the safety of witnesses!

_. : End Flashback : ._

Sakura ground her teeth angrily. 'No. More. Of those.' Seriously, she got enough whenever she slept. …For whatever, _odd_ reason, that was.

She could feel her Innerself smiling, 'Yeah, yeah.'

That, had been a couple hours ago. Now, only the chosen thirteen remained in the building. The cause, unknown to Sakura. Karin had closed the party early, literally _kicking _everyone out hours before the written-verbalized time. It was peculiar, that she, Karin, self-proclaimed party girl, had stopped this, her _own_ fiesta. But, Sakura hadn't been one of the ones told to leave (Truth be told, whilst shoving everyone out the door Karin's eyes had barely even grazed Sakura for more than a second) and she wasn't exactly one to question good fortune.

Bringing the now popped popcorn bags into the room, she saw that her group of friends(minus "The" couple) were sitting in a ring around a single sheet of paper. With a wave and whine of, "Sakura-chan help us!" from a certain blonde she joined circle. She had agreed hastily, tossing the bowl to the side, the thought of inquiring what the heck they were doing, never crossing her mind. Everything seemed so much more relaxed again; her friends weren't being all super-wary around her. And That was most-likely because…

Sakura's eyes darted a few feet away to where "The" couple were sitting. ("The" because, the Sasu-Kari pairing was quickly becoming one of _the_ most popular pairings in all of Konoha High). They were -Sakura felt her nose scrunch up- Eww. Making out. … Why did she look over there again? Oh right, without Karin around to provoke her, the tension in the group had died away quickly.

Weird. Normally, Karin was able to provoke her _and_ swap spit with her ex at the same time. But now… it was almost like _she_ was trying to ignore _her_.

'**Well for once, I actually applaud, your efforts Dear Karin-chan.'** Her innerself felt she need to comment on this new development, to Sakura's silent agreement.

"It's a dog."

Neji rolled his almost invisible orbs, "You think _everything's_ a dog, Inuzuka."

"Okay, Mr.Big-shot! Tell us what _you_ think it is." Kiba growled back.

The brown-haired teen squinted, peering down at the eight by five drawing. "It's… It's a… _Ino_ is this a pokemon character?" he glared at her accusingly, "This has to be a _real _animal. I thought we got it into your thick skull three years ago that pokemon _aren't real_."

The blue-eyed girl elbowed the elder Hyuuga in the stomach, "It _is_ an actual animal!" she hissed, then looked down into her lap. "I could'a sworn I saw a nine tails."

"Right 'um" Naruto interjected a bit high-pitched and quickly, shifting around in his cross-legged position… suspiciously…. "I think it's a… a-" A wide grin grew on his face. "A space shuttle getting ready to launch freeze-dried cans of ramen into space so our astronauts can eat ramen every hour on the hour!"

Everyone took a long moment, just to stare at the whiskered boy, who didn't notice their looks for the longest time, busy fantasizing in his own mind, when he did his only comment was an utterly confused, "What?" To which everyone chose to just let go. Better to just leave the soon to be "First-Man-To-Eat-50-Pounds-Of-Ramen-IN-SPACE!" in his daydreams.

Instead, everyone's eyes turned to Sakura, as she was next in the line of people to go. Of course, she had no idea what they were doing, having to pop popcorn (and go through stupid flashbacks!) that no one was even eating and all, and informed them thus so.

"Just tell us what you think this animal is." Tenten returned picking up the sheet and handing it to her. "I warn you now though, it's an _Ino-_creation."

"And just what's _that_ supposed to mean?" Ino commented irritably, "I'll have you know, that I've had an _exceptional _artist critique me on my skills. And is molding me to become an excellent drawer." she finished proudly.

"Not a real word." Shikamaru jibbed lazily from his position on a beanbag across the circle. It was one of the genius' little quirks. As much as he loved being carefree he couldn't stand people using imaginary words around him.

Smiling a bit at the aggravated tone, she peered at the… the… what the heck was it? Jeez! Ino's "artist" friend must be blind. She grimaced and turned the paper side ways. Not much better. Even Deidara could probably do a better job teaching the girl how to draw.

And all _he_ did was blow up junk.

"It's a… a mud-skipper? I really don't know."

Shaking her head and grinning, Ino sat up onto her knees, "Nope! And that's everyone, isn't it?!" She paused a few seconds and upon hearing no disagreements, she went back to cheering giddily, "Yes! I win! I win!"

"Win _what_?" Sakura asked a tad discourteously.

"And what was that picture of?" Chouji's voice called after her.

"Huh? Oh, Shino was the closest by the way, it was a platypus. (Insert Group Groans here) _And_ I won the right to choose tonight's next activity, KARAOKE!"

Sakura felt her pupils shrinking in dread. Sure a few days before, Sakura would've been fine with going to sing, but tonight, she really didn't feel up to it, maybe it was the Karin-induced adrenaline power that had made her say yes to it before, but is wasn't there currently. Besides, she still had a task to do.

Luckily, the problem seemed to solve itself. "You _always_ chose Karaoke, Ino. Pick something new, won't you?" a male voice quetched.

"Fine. Fine." She relinquished, pacifying the voice and the many others that had joined it. "How about… DDR? Winner choses the next game?"

This option was much more well-received. And all the teens (except Ino, who went to get the gaming equipment; the expensive arcade-version of course) moved in front of the big screen, Sakura, Tenten, Neji and Kiba moving the still flipped couch out of the way. It seemed as the second they had finished, clearing out the space that the Sasu-Kari had ended their make-out session and the female of which had called dibs on the first song.

She chose "Butterfly". Psh, Easiest song in the world. Something in the back of her mind told her she was being a bit bias. If it were anyone else playing the song, she would've acknowledged them with respect, as it was one of her own personal favorites.

But, she saw that look Karin was giving her. It was entirely self-content, more so than usual. She even went as far as adding a few "sexy" moves as she would call them during the gaps in music, aimed at Sasuke (because of which they both got cat-whistles for and encouraged a twisted little smirk to implant itself on the younger _immature_ Uchiha) but her eyes were trained on Sakura, to see just how'd she'd react. Purposely antagonizing her. Such a large mood jump when you think about it, from ignoring to taunting in only a couple of minutes.

Sakura would've liked- no _loved_ nothing more than to wipe that smirk off of _both_ of their faces by beating Karin straight out on the dance machine. But unfortunately for her, she would never get the chance. Her third opponent was Neji Hyuuga.

Of the Hyuuga family; who because of their fighting style were naturally _Pros_ at DDR.

In the end, it was a Hyuuga vs. Hyuuga match.

If you've never seen one, you couldn't _possibly _understand the intensity of the match.

Hinata, who was although was only trained in a bit of Hyuuga self-defense as a child and regular standard martial arts growing up, was also a dancer and thus had that knowledge advantage. On the other hand, Neji had trained almost every single of his life in nothing but the Hyuuga-style, even going as far as creating up some of his own attacks he formulated just from sparring experience. The two of them together, on heavy, was simply mesmerizing to watch. Their moves were calculated and always on beat, if ever their was an error it was never because of lost of focus, nor a late or early. It was perfect or nothing. The biggest difference in their styles one could see was that the younger of the two's moves were often connected with each other and undeniably graceful, while her cousin's moves were more rapid disconnected staccato beats.

Sakura eyed her normally bunned-friend but now loose and straight haired friend watching the elder boy a bit too keenly to be completely innocent. It was just too tempting! She quickly got the girl's attention and vigorously rubbed at the corner of her own mouth. Tenten got the message and started to rub at the corner of her mouth as well. After a few seconds she brought her hand down, "Is it gone?"

Sakura smiled thinnly, trying to keep all her laughter tucked inside, "Yes, it was just a bit of drool. No worries! We all know Neji's really _Whooo!_-" She fanned herself with one hand, wiping a bit of imaginary sweat off her forehead with the other. "Just stop watching him every few minutes and take a period to cool down. Deep breaths and you'll be fine." She ended using her best Hospital voice. Tenten had sent her a rather rude gesture after that and Sakura had been forced to hide from being pillowed to death (and stifle her giggles) behind a too-involved-in-the-game-to-notice Kiba.

As per-usual Neji won. But it was a close battle; every time they played it seemed as if their scores were getting closer and the rift in skill was becoming smaller.

Some things led to others and eventually Sakura found herself watching the incredibly _uninteresting _Star-attaining game via. the Wii.

"Yes. Well… as fun as catching bunnies is…" Shika intoned drowsily from somewhere to her left, sounding as bored as she felt.

"Yeah, guys let's call it a night. We've got to if we want to make that movie without paying the late-night-afternoon fee." Ino enunciated from her spot next to him on the bean bag, that he had apparently carried with him.

"But I was winning!" Naruto cried, as the game was sent back to it's menu screen.

"Yosh! Naruto! I believe it was I, your youthful rival, who was in the lead!"

"Was not!"

"Actually, he was, dobe. Now, shut your yap and sleep." That was definitely Sasuke, from his little love nest with Karin by the DDR set that had been pushed to the side next to the couch.

Naruto muttered something about being under-appreciated that brought a grin to Sakura's lips as she heard him and the rest of the awake-crew go to their futons/ sleeping bags. She was already in her own sleeping bag, fake-sleeping, pretending to have fallen accidentally like Hinata, Tenten, Chouji, Karin, and Kiba had.

And let Sakura tell you. Fake-sleeping was not at all fun; not, if you hadn't the patience for it. She waited, waited until they had gotten into their sleeping positions, checked her watch about seven times, waited until they had finished shuffling in their bags, waited until their breathing patterns had become slow and rhythmic, checked her watch Another nine times, waited until heir chakra patterns had done the same, and had waited ten minutes_ longer_. Just to be _extra_ sure. It was then, and only then, did Sakura get up and out of her sleeping bag.

She was extremely careful not to swish the fluffiness that she used to admire and treasure about her bag but was now appearing to be just a disadvantage from making too much noise. She was even more prudent stepping around the haphazardly strewn Naruto as well as making sure to keep on her tiptoes around the Hyuuga heirs. To her pride, she made it all the way to the door without one mishap.

'Now, to find where Shino left his bugs.' She'd tried to listen out for his footsteps, but that had proved to be quite impossible as they sounded the same exactly the same as the other seven people. Ultimately, she had to search through all the rooms, and it seemed as if it the very last room Sakura knew of on the bottom floor did she find them in. It was a medium-sized walk in closet that had two entrances (it was placed at the intersection of two hallways).It was _because_ it was the last place she knew of on the bottom floor that she searched it so thoroughly and was pleasantly surprised to find the jar of bugs high on a shelf above her head. Where once she had feared she feared she wouldn't be able to find the jar, _getting_ it seemed to be a much more pressing issue. It took the unwiring of one hangar and the bruising of many fingers to properly maneuver the uneasily assessable container above. In her midst of her plodding she had been frightened only once, letting out a short squeal as the jar rolled the wrong direction and almost off the edge. Luckily for her, it didn't and soon Sakura was getting ready switching out jars (she had prepared herself and brought a jar identical to the one she knew Shino used to replace the bugs actual container). She was just about to replace the jar (getting it up was going to be way easier than getting it down was) when an idea struck her.

At first she thought it juvenile and returned to her mission work but the thought continued to nag her. So much so, that just she was already out the door when she rushed back in and took the replacement bottle back down. Digging into her bag(at the same time, placing the bar of bugs in it as well; it was quite roomy), she revealed the two things she required: Red and black permanent markers.

Sharpies. Never go anywhere without 'em.

She finished her little addition somewhat spryly, before tucking the fake jar back into it's spot.

Good. Now all she had to do was take the jar to Zetsu and-

"Sakura-san?"

Sakura could laugh. Laugh then cry. No. _No_. Just No. This was not going to happen again.

"Yes, Lee?" she turned around with a closing her eyes and offering a strained smile, trying very hard not to show her critical exacerbation at seeing him.

She had made it all the way to the stairs, dang it. THE STAIRS!

"Saakurrraa-san?" He repeated in a drunken tone. Or the tone of a normal drunk; Lee drunken was hyper-active.

When she really looked at him for the first time she had to do a double-take. He, like many of the other boys his age, chose to sleep in nothing but his boxers revealing - One eyebrow went up in female appreciation - finely sculpted chest and abs muscles. Not to much, not to little. His hair was not in it's normal bowl-shaped form but was ragged going everywhere, in many different directions, kinda like Naruto's style but well… better-looking. His eyes were half-lidded but still trained on her, so much so, that they almost reminded her of Gai-sensei's, you know in shape. Anything that reminded her of Gai-sensei was normally a very scary thought, yes, but when coupled with the other current facial features of Lee. It looked… well to be put in the most respectable terms-

A drowsy Lee, was a very _Hot _Lee.

Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to praise-and-or-worship this beautiful site, much longer. She had to devise a way to get Lee off her back. Knowing him, she knew it wouldn't be easy. It'd have to tricky, yet reasonable. It'd have to be-

"Is this a dream?"

Sakura blinked not once, but twice.

_Orrrrr_, it could be that.

"Yes, Lee. This is a Dreeeaaaammmm!" She exclaimed, wiggling her body back and forth for emphasis. She felt like a stinking cartoon character.

Lee's dark gray eyes didn't follow her, but kept intent on her eyes, he frowned, digging one hand through his ruffled locks- _seductively_, No! Bad Sakura! Mission! _Mission!_- "This isn't how my dreams normally go."

It was Sakura's turn to frown as she stopped her decidedly foolish "dream" simulated-actions. "Then what usually happens?" she asked without thinking.

Lee grinned a grin, Sakura never saw him grin before, with a look she'd never seen him have. He leaned in, and Sakura automatically stepped back. They kept going until her back hit the bottom of the stairwell. And she was in the very same position she was with Suigetsu hours before, but with _very_ different thoughts and a very different person.

She felt a hand wrap around the waistband of her skirt, as his other went up into her pink locks, most of which was still held up delicately in a pigtail. It played up there, before ghosting down through her earlobe, actually touching it for a moment, and her neck. It seemed he decided to stop, rubbing tenderly with his index and middle finger the back of her neck directly below a pressure point, exactly on a knot that she had acquired a while ago but never got around to kneedling it out. Right now, she was sure she could purr.

"In my dreams," he murmured, "We're usually like this."

Dear lord. When in the world, did _Lee_ become so… enticing? Was it all because he was half-asleep? Well _dang_. Personality Switch??!

He stopped his ministrations for a moment, pulling back, "And this is the part where you usually…"

"I usually…" Sakura asked with a bit more than curiosity.

She saw him mouth the words. And her ears heard the words, "Kiss" and "Me." But her brain did not process it until she was him began to lean in. Only to stop centimeters away from her on.

What about her solemn oath to swear off men for a year?

She searched for somewhere to look besides his lips, she found his eyes. And… they were oddly captivating, and full of unadulterated lust.

If.. It's for the mission. It'd be okay? Wouldn't it?

She leaned in a tenth of a centimeter. Her green pupils intent on being locked with dark silver. Her clothing rustling against his chest.. His incredibly toned, and muscular chest as she made her lips made it's ascent. .She could smell the "Axe" scent radiating from him. It normally made her gag, as it was used in heavy globs, but Lee seemed to find the exact right amount so that it was alluring…. Like the men in the commercials. She paused only a hair's widths away.

It's for the mission. It's for the mission. It's for the-.. The-.. Oh, who am I kidding. It's For ME!!!!

And with that she shut her eyes and crashed her own lips against his.

If you were to tell Sakura Haruno, she'd enjoy kissing Rock Lee, this morning in the lunch line, she would've most likely would've smiled and said "Really? That's nice." Before accidentally, spilling her vegetable soup down your shirt.

But as of this moment Sakura could honestly decree that Lee had to be the world's greatest kisser. Well… better than Sasuke that's for sure. Later, Sakura would wonder if the talent of his tongue was purely H.A. Lee. (She had been forced to separate two based on personality, as her real Lee, as sad as it may be, would _never _in a million years be that forward… or that hot…) or if real Lee had inspired any of it. Later, though she would think about this issue, because her mind, no _his tongue_ wasn't allowing her to think of anything else but him.

To say that Sakura, was sad when the kiss ended would more than likely be the number one understatement of the year for Konoha. She was down right dejected when she felt his heavenly soft and warm lips slowly retract from her own.

He took a moment to get his breathing together, as did Sakura. He looked down at her in amusement, "And that is how my dream's normally go." he whispered, before removing himself away from her person, tantalizingly slowly and beginning to walk back to the room with the others.

"And Sakura-san?"

Her eyes drifted a tad sluggishly up to meet his.

He displayed Good-Guy pose complete with teeth gleam and thumbs up sign. "Don't stay up too late!"

Sakura watched him wide-eyed as he walked down hallway, unable to do or say anything. Come on, what was she _supposed_ to think?! She did the only sensible thing she could do at the moment.

She checked her watch.

2:52.

Kami, she _really_ needed some Z's.

-------

NightDREAMERms: Woah, the ending was just, you have no freaking IDEA how fun it was to write! Of course there'll be repercussions and all that next chapter.

And guys I'm REALLY REALLY sorry about the horrendous wait this chapter had. But if, it helps any I've always been working on this story, everyday, just on the future chapters. I even have next chapter all written out!! …. Well the dialogue at least. But writing the descriptions are fun as well! So it shouldn't take as long as before. And as much as you might want to kill me for the long wait, you must praise me with reviews. You know why? Because I love you guys _so_ much. I sat in an uncomfortable computer chair typing my guts out for hours, literally until 7 in the morning, whilst in the middle of pmsing. Now that's love ppl.


	13. Chapter 13

NightDREAMERms: Hellos ppls! I said I'd get this one up quicker, so yah… I'm not sure if this is exactly Quicker but..! Mmm… what to say… what to say… OH! For all of you ItachixSakura ppls who Wanted this to be an ItaSaku story… No I'm not making it one. However, I did make(coughcoughWASFORCEDcough) a freaking long one-shot about the pairing if you want to read it. The title's "Opal Necklace". I guess that's about it… okay onto story!

Oops! Also reviewer question:

Hippomonstrolalalalalala: Lolz. Yes, it was quite weird wasn't it! And no, that's nowhere NEAR Sakura's first kiss. If you remember she dated Sasuke for over a year; she even commented that Lee was a better kisser than him. (Oh how wrong she'll discover she is (hint hint)… hehe… )

NOW ONTO STORY!

Disclaimer: Me no owns anything! Besides umm.. The plot? And… My stuffed Dalmatian!!!

**EDIT**: Many mistakes. Fixed most of them. Added a Teaser. Enjoy!

--

"talking"

'thinking'

'**Inner Sakura' **

'_Zetsu's lighter side'_

And of course the normal out-of-the-norm text will be capitalized, bolded, or italicized. (i.e. flashbacks, volume, sarcasm, emphasis, etc.)

--

Late Revenge: Chapter 13

--

_Sakura walked down the main hallway of Konoha Academy. The students around her were chatting happily about their hopes for the holidays, wish-lists, etc. Around the doors were either wreathes, balloons, or flowers in many colors rather than the normal red, white and green. The walls on the outside and inside of classrooms were just, if not more, heavily decorated in matching colors and banners screaming out phrases of congratulations, luck, and merriness. _

_A very joyous aura sprang through the air; even the teachers were acting a bit more cheerful. In this new found spirit of elation, the eighth graders had some how found a way to convince principal Sarutobi to, for the last two weeks of school before winter vacation, change the bells from it's normal beep like sound to a more melodious ring. _

_All in all the middle school was in a state of perpetual euphoria. _

How Sakura hated it all.

_She took a long, disgusting-sounding sniffle before sighing. Her eyelids were drooping over halfway and she felt very queasy. She was sick this time of year, like every year since she was seven years old. She'd always wake up somewhere near the first of December to be diagnosed with a cold or some other like-illness then be given an Advil(The Wonder Pill) and sent straight to school where she'd suffer for another 2-3 weeks before miraculously becoming better once the break started. It was such a normal routine that after the third time she developed the illness her mom had started to skip the doctor part and go straight to the Advils. _

_Currently she was on two and a half. _

_But they had yet to do their magic. Her throat itched, her stomach cramped, her head hurt, her nose was irritated, her muscles ached, and her eyes burned. She wanted to just go home and _die_, but she couldn't... not for eight more days. _

_She took another long, exaggerated sniffle, wrinkling the noses of two nearby gossiping girls. Who thereafter scooted to the other side of the hall. _

_Sakura's lips formed a tipsy smile. Yes, she had dimmed their glee. The last thing she wanted was to be around while in her dreary mood was happy people, and unfortunately, this place was chop _full _of 'em_.

_Even the gang was too relatively upbeat to sulk with. Lee was busy shouting out crap about Youthfulness to anyone who would(and wouldn't) listen. Ino had a new secret infatuation that kept her busy. Speaking of which, Shikamaru was steadily avoiding anything that walked and had boobs. Tenten and Hinata had some confidential project that they were working on in and out of school on. Due to which, they had kicked Neji (How? She would never know) out of the Hyuuga Complex, and_ he _was so PO'd that he convinced himself that _every_ one of them (the girls) were in on it and thus ignored all of them. (Consequently, he and Shika were commonly found together). Chouji was on cloud-nine with the upcoming Winter feast and even Shino was showing spirit: wearing Green! …Or did he normally wear green… ? Anyhow, Naruto and Kiba, deciding this was the perfect time of year to set off their new-year's styled pranklings, provided entertainment for the rest of the student body causing an extra-shortage of negativity._

_And Haku… well… Haku was _always _cheerful_.

_Sakura let out a quiet "Heh heh" when one of the purple and white banners that exclaimed _"Good Luck!" _fell down on one side and only showed the _"-uck!" _part leaving the imagination to guess what the rest said_.

_Sadly, Iruka-chichi just happened to be passing by at that moment and stopped his whistling to bend down replace the sign (reapplying it with chakra and scotch tape). Then continued on his way now humming "Jingle Bell Rock". _

_She let out a frustrated sigh, that did not want to stop and turned into a hacking cough with so much force that she had to bend her knees to keep herself upright. Dang. It hurt so much but she couldn't stop_.

_After swallowing a couple of times and getting her breathing under control she allowed herself to continue on, trying her best to disregard the piteous looks she was receiving. She was able to make four more steps before her arms started to feel very heavy as eyelids. Suddenly she wished she hadn't snapped at Haku when he asked if she wanted him to carry her books for her_.

_Dark purplish dots swam in and out of her vision and one arm rose to meet with the pastel-colored wall to her left to try to steady her. Though the arm itself didn't help much, it was tingling and felt like a strange mix between rubber and jelly. The dot's multiplied and her head felt woozy. The last thing she remembered before her knees hit the ground and everything went black was the sound of quickly-paced footsteps. _

"-just fell!" _Someone she did not recognize_.

"-someone… clinic…call-" _Iruka-chichi?_

"I'll… take…" _Familiar…_

"… 'kay, Sa… But make sure… needs to go home_."_ _Iruka-chichi again. _

_Sakura's eyes fluttered open at that moment. She couldn't make out the dark figures above her but still mumbled out, "Can't go home…" _

_The figures seemed to turn toward her. _

"_Sakura? Are you okay?" The kind voice of Iruka-chichi questioned. Naruto was lucky to have him as an uncle. She could now see a hand being held out to her in her fuzzy vision and took it, wobbling but successfully standing up completely. _

"_Yes," she answered once situated. "And I don't need to go home, I'm _perfectly _fine." _

_Her vision was finally clear and she could now see the frown on the scarred man's face_. _"Really?" he asked, unbelieving. _

"_Yep! Watch!" she exclaimed in her best I'm-happy-like-the-rest-of-you-guys voice. She then walked in short circle before stopping directly in front of him; discreetly using a ton of strength keeping her head level so he wouldn't notice how in reality her mind was still spinning from that little turn. _

"_Okay…" he responded unsurely, looking her directly in the eye, worriedly. "But Sasuke here will escort you to your next class. If he believes anything is wrong he'll send you straight to the infirmary, understand?" _

_Goosebumps simultaneously appeared up and down her arms as she turned her head agonizingly slowly to her right. There, standing with his arms crossed with a, what she classified as, bored expression was Sasuke Uchiha. The very same boy who she had shirked all contact with since _that _night_.

_Crud-tastic_.

_But… looking at him now. Not that she hadn't you-know _seen_ him before(Though, she did try very hard Not to), but she never saw him this close-up… . He looked _so_ good. Better than she had remembered. He had gotten more toned, but that much was as expected when one gets older, with broad shoulders and an almost perfectly shaped jaw line… no wonder half- well three-fourths of the girls in her classes were fangirls. … And five percent of the guys… Uh anyway, his hair was, still spiky mind you, but now the gravity-defying locks gave him a rugged look rather than the cute just-out-of-bed style he had when younger. And his eyes… his eyes no longer held the baby-dilated pupil tendency and were now stone ebony; the kind that pierce into your soul and stop you from breathing for a moment. Yes, very _very handsome _dark_-

'_NO NO! Bad thoughts_, BAAAD _We do not think about jerk-offs in those terms_!' _She interrupted her inner monologue loudly and desperately_.

'_**Just ignore him, Sakura-chan!' Inner Sakura decided to help, for once. "Don't undo all those years of avoiding him. Switching with the girls for different spots at the table, going to the back of lunch line so you wouldn't have to stand near him; I am NOT going to allow **_**you _forcing_ us _to sit in the very uncomfortable front end of the limo_ Every time _he rides with us to be wasted today_****, do you hear me?' **

'_Ye-yeah_.' _She replied, stuttering against her will._

_Her cheeks, obviously not listening to her mind,_ pinkened. _Dang them. And dang her stupid hormones too._

_She turned back to Iruka-chichi, her head bowed a bit so he wouldn't see her blush. "I understand, sensei."_

_Iruka-chichi nodded then eyed her wistfully for a moment before hesitantly moving away. _

_Sasuke grunted when she took a minute longer to compose herself both physically and emotionally. Hastily, she turned toward her current destination, locking her eyes forward so she wouldn't see the Uchiha out the corner of her eye. Like _that _plan would last for long._

"_Where are you going?" A deep voice intoned. _

_And she's proven correct._

_Sakura felt the short hairs at the base of her neck stand up as his breath made contact with her skin. She didn't think he was _that_ close. Still she managed to contain her composure and pride-fully reply, "To class." …Okay… so it came out more as a nervous and blush-filled, "T-to class." But what would YOU have done if some hot boy had murmured into_ your _ear?! _

"_The stairs are to your right not your left." _

_Huh? What was he…? Oh. Sakura's feet had subconsciously led her to the elevator that she had started to use daily ever since her illness began_.

'_Thanks so much for the heads up,_ Inner.'

'_**Hey, hey! I'm in your head not your toes!**_**'**

_The stairs always made her feel lightheaded nowadays and normally, it wasn't hard to sneak onto the underused machine. But now with Sasuke here..._

_Sakura giggled anxiously, "Oh, of course." Before resisting the urge to smack herself in the forehead, she sounded like ditzy air-head. Instead, she proceeded to change her course and enter the covered stairwell._

_Those evil _evil_ covered stairs. And it was not just because they made her dizzy that she proclaimed them evil. First day of school, last year. These were the same stairs that _tricked_ her into believing they were the ones that lead straight up to her homeroom classroom. Thus causing her to lose all sense of direction for the next ten minutes and miss almost all of homeroom period. … Then again it was only Because she was lost that day did she meet kind-hearted Haku… Bad example… bad example… OH! Ha! Last month, the third day back from the Autumn holidays. The stairs caused her to trip and embarrass herself in front of that fake-smiling schmo by dumping all the contents previously located in her book bag over the steps that connected the two floors. Evil._

_Just looking at the bottom of the steps made her head start to spin and her eyelids heavy once again. She quickly shook her head to clear her mind, effectively preventing her knees from caving in. _

_You can do this Sakura it's just one measly step, then another- _

'_**Then 44 more!!' Inner Sakura's unneeded interjection.**_

'Not _helping._'

'**Not **_**trying**_**.'**

_Ignoring her Innerself the best she could, Sakura took a single step with her left foot only to find her head reeling a millisecond later. _

_The dark-eyed Uchiha, who had been watching her antics suspiciously, promptly grabbed her wrist to keep her from falling, though she was fine herself, having taken hold of the railing before hand. "You okay?" he inquired gruffly without an ounce of actual concern in his voice. _

"_Just great." she answered a little peeved, "subtly" snatching her arm out of his grasp. Whether it be at him or her own body, she didn't know. It was, sadly, only four more steps before her sandal caught the edge of one of the conglomerate steps and sent her flying forward evicting a short shrill from the shoe's owner. _

_Short, only because, seconds after she began her accidental descent arms caught hold of her waist and pulled her back up. _

"Sure_ you are." She heard the spikey-haired male comment sarcastically behind her. She couldn't lie and say she wasn't surprised that the boy had even tried to save her. The Sasuke Uchiha she pictured was a bratty little boy who held the perfect life and didn't care about the feelings of the others he stomped on. She also knew she was being _slightly_ unfair in thinking that way; that was years ago and people change, but still…!_

_Suddenly, the pink-haired girl felt warmth brush against the backs of her thighs and settle at her knees just as the arm had snaked around her waist and pulled her to safety moments before hoisted her into the air. "Wha-what are you doing?!" she screamed in both fear and choler. _

"_Carrying you." Was the dry answer_.

_Sakura fought the urge to roll her eyes as her body, well his body, began moving down the stairwell. "Well, I can _see _that." before adding a curiosity-perked, "Why?" _

"… _I don't want to see you hurt yourself." _

_Sakura was impelled to do a double take to the 7__th__ grader above her. Her lips started to form a small shy warm smile. Was this a cliché moment or what? This was the stuff that happened in books, right?! But no, it was happening to her right now, being carried bridal style by her ex-crush who had just admitted-_

_Sasuke abruptly scrunched up his nose. "That would be an _ugly _sight; your skull splitting on concrete." he continued disgust evident in his vocal cords. _

_Whole-heartedly she glared at his form, and suddenly the only thing she wanted was to be out of his stupid arms.(No matter how nice he did smell! No, no seriously. She thought it was Axe, but not in that normal overdoing it kind of way. It was like he had found the perfect amount of the strong-smelling substance…. Like in the commercials…) "Didn't_ think _you cared." she muttered lowly underneath her voice so he wouldn't overhear as Inner Sakura, who hadn't regarded Sasuke highly in the first place, laughed. _

_Sakura was incredibly relieved when Sasuke finally took the last step off the Stairway to Death, Pain, and Mortification but oddly Sasuke did not release her, _nor did he turn to the right as he should've!

"_Hey! Now where are _you _going?" she pried, spitting back his own words. "My class is over _there!" _she ended pointing her index finger in the opposite direction. _

_He gave her a blank stare. "Yes, and you're going to the Student Affairs, so you can go home." _

_Almost immediately Sakura began to struggle in his grip, swerving her torso back and forth. "No! I can't! I gotta go to class!" she scream-pleaded. She_ really_ did. When he made no move to change his course nor let her down, she stopped struggling to give him a cold glare with her no longer shining green eyes. "Don't think I won't kick you. I will." she threatened darkly. "And my okaa-san's got _strong _legs." _

_Fortunately at that latest piece of information, the Uchiha above let out an irritated sounding sigh, before rolling his coal eyes to the top of his head and making a U-turn. Oh _he's _annoyed?! How did he think_ she _felt. Being carried all the way to class unable to decide personally whether or not she herself would have to go home. _

_Right, speaking of that._

"_Umm… you can put me down now." she squirmed a bit to emphasize her feet. She could walk! Just… er- not in any direction besides straight forward_.

_He didn't shift an inch nor did he look down at her as he spoke. "Hn… _Can _but won't."_

_Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk Jerk…_

--

"_Hayate-sensei!" her captor called out lazily as he reached their destination. _

"_Sasuke-san, you aren't in this period." Hayate-sensei coughed curtly into his fist and looked up from his position at the board, chalk still in hand. The bell had rang on their way through the halls but class had still just began. _

_On sight, practically all the females of the room (sadly, even the ones with boyfriends _in the room) _swooned for their(and "their" as in "my" for each individual girl) Prince Charming. _

_Heh, he was a toad in her eyes. At least personality wise. And she hated toads._

_Sasuke then walked all the way in the room to reveal the unhappy carnation-haired teen present in his arms. _

_Poor Sakura received a welcome back "Hiss!" from all the same girls who had fell into deliquium moments before._

_She hissed right on back. Completely out of spite though, not because she was threatened by them or anything like that romantically… or relationship-wise with Sasuk- Ugh, Die conflicting emotions, DIE!_

_Sasuke didn't see or pretended not to and ignored their little exchange. "Sakura, needs to go to the clinic. But she refuses to go. She's sick." he stated evenly, walking to the desk where the dark-brown haired man had sat down. _

_Freedom! Sakura finally jerked out of his hold and landed crouching on the floor. Thank Iruka-sensei for teaching them how to roll properly as children, she could do them now without thinking. "Am not!" she retorted angrily, standing up, _carefully;_ who knew what movement of her head would make her entire body vertiginous. Once her head was level with the ground she forced her aching legs to move her up and down the hall created by the desks of the classroom. "I'm Perfectly- _Ooh… _" She felt her upper body dip forward without her permission. _

_Seemingly, spiky-hair-boy had psychic powers and predicted her fall, scooping her up to a standing position before she can even stop herself by placing a hand on the nearby desk that happened to belong to her; Despite her protests. He sent their teacher a look that clearly said, 'You see?'_

_Sakura, beginning to lose her energy to resist, stuck to leaning against her desk and blowing him a half-hearted raspberry when he turned his back. _

_Hayate-sensei shook his head before eyeing her gravely. "If you are not feeling well, Sakura-san, then you need to go home and rest-" His sentence broke off as he was sent into a series of disturbingly hacking coughs. _

_The red-loving girl felt a comic-like sweat drop building, 'You sound like you're the one who needs the rest, sensei.' Glancing briefly to her forced companion she could see by the expression on his face that he was thinking something along the same lines. _

_Hayate-sensei fumbled inside his desk with one hand, the other still covering his mouth until he pulled out a pad of pink notes and red print. They could've eaisly been mistaken for valentines had the notes been cordate instead of rectangular. Pulling out a ball point pen he quickly scribbled something illegible to her and handed the piece of paper to blue-wearing boy. "Here. Please make sure Sakura-san stays there. She tends to over work herself." _

Hello? Sakura, over here.

_Sasuke nodded a silent gratitude and intoned a respectful "I will."_

_The solferino-haired girl's right eyebrow twitched and she lifted a hand to show exemplify her presence_. "Uh, _SAKURA is still here. And SAKURA doesn't want to leave!" _

_For the first time since they entered the classroom, the Uchiha shot a short glance to her. "You're an invalid. You don't _get _a choice_."

_Oh really? Sakura humphed indignantly and stiffly spread her feet apart, crossed her arms, and cocked her head. Her body language exhibited a very loud 'I'm not moving' message. _

_The smart-ass looked at casual as ever. He looked her back directly in the eyes. "Permission to carry her against her will, sir?" _

_Without so much as one glance towards them, the baggy-eyed teacher replied easily, "Granted." Waving them out and sipping a bottled water at the same time, then returned to his place on the board and to his class; all of which, were currently either amply entertained by the couples antics or glaring at woman of which for "stealing their man". For some reason, they couldn't quite see the obvious HATE signals between them_.

_Sakura's jaw was still dropped when Sasuke's hand incircled her wrist and began hauling her out the room. "What The…!" she stammered regaining control over her thoughts, then once she realizing the situation furiously and futilely tried to tear herself out of the taller yet month-wise younger boy's vice-like grip, "This is a violation of personal rights, I'll have you know! I'LL SUE!" _

'_**I'll sue ya! I'll take all ya money. I'll sue ya, if you even look at me funny!' **__Inner Sakura started out singing enthusiastically before noticing her outterself's darkening aura. _

_She giggled nervously, __**'Hehe… sorry? Bad timing.',** a__bruptly fading away into the background._

--

_Sakura glared. She _wanted_ to glare at him, but that had proved ineffective. Alternatively, she glared at the innocent tile-like ceiling. It couldn't glare back_.

"_Is there a _reason _why you're purposely forcing yourself to stay here?" the dark-haired adolescent inquired from his seat in the corner across from the clinic patient bed. The bed she was _forced_ to lie on. She hadn't expected him to actually stay with her once he deposited her at the clinic, but well surprise, surprise. _

_She moved her scowl to him, temporarily forgetting it's ineffectiveness. "Yes. I want to exempt my exams." she answered grumpily_.

_Sasuke's eyebrows rose to his hair line and he shot her a disbelieving look. "That's all? Pft, talk about Shikamaru's laziness." he ended gazing uninterestedly away._

_Her eyes narrowed into slits. "I'm not lazy! I just…" Her voice trailed off. He didn't need or probably want to know everything. _

_As if just to contradict her mind, Sasuke's line of vision snapped back to her. "You what?" _

_Again, the intensity of his eyes brought very unwanted warmth to her cheeks. Luckily this time Sakura was able to suppress it, displaying a spiteful look in it's stead. "Not that's it's any of_ your business _but I need money_."

_Sasuke frowned back at her, indicating that she should continue. _

_She let out a inward sigh. What would it hurt to tell him? She uncrossed her arms and leant into the pillows that propped her up in a sitting position, instead linking her fingertips together. "My mom's law firm hasn't been doing very good these last couple of years, and with me going to this taijutsu style private school sometimes… ends don't exactly meet where they should. So to make up for the loose strings, I work for the last two weeks every year before Christmas at the hospital. It's nice there and the pay's good so normally we have some extra money left over, which we use to by presents and stuff. My spot's saved cause I volunteer there normally, but, the position's only open for a limited time and in order to get it I have to be able to work the week of exams, otherwise someone else will take it." She had fiddled with her fingers throughout the entire story. No one else, not even Ino, Tenten, or Hinata knew of her… financial difficulties. She guessed she didn't want them to worry. That and… even though everyone understood that her family was quote-unquote "rich" her family was the only in the Konoha-12 that hadn't had some amount of martial-arts history and thus wasn't invited into the school. It was just sort of embarrassing, it almost made it seem like she wasn't fit to go to the middle school. _

_Sasuke appeared unfazed, "You said you're sick every year. They let you work there in that condition?" _

_Sakura blinked. Wow, he was really listening. He kept on surprising her. "Uhh, yeah. But by then I'm not sick anymore. It's must be something with _schools." _she ended, detest audible in the last word and followed by a sneeze._

"_Well, here's a thought," the dark-eyed boy began in his I-know-all tone of voice. _"Take the exams early."

_This time Sakura _did _roll her eyes. "I _can't _we average people," She paused and shifted uncomfortably. In a quieter voice than before she continued. "We don't get granted special abilities by the school board like that."_

_Sasuke took this information in silently, remaining in his brooding position. _

_Sakura leaned forward hopefully, "So…" she started as relaxed as possible, "Now that you know my drama-life story… Will you let me leave?!" So a little desperateness leaked into her voice at the end, who would notice? _

_Sasuke's position did not alter. "No." _

_She "Che"'d she lips noisily and plopped back into the soft pillows behind her, re-crossing her arms roughly. So much for that. _

_The Uchiha-crested male rose from his seat with an audible creak from the wooden chair. He walked to the door but his hand only rested on the handle. "However, you _will _take your exams early." _

_It was her turn to frown and she did. His body was faced to the door though, so she couldn't read his expression. _

"_The Uchiha Clan deems it so." his voice echoed in complete seriousness as the door behind clicked closed._

_Sakura simply stared at the space where he had stood._

'…_He… can do that?' _

'_**Who cares if he **_**can **_**he **_**is**_**! Rejoice, my friend!!!**_**' **_Inner Sakura shouted in her mind, no doubt throwing streamers and confetti into the air._

_At that moment a blonde blur burst in the room from the opposite side of which Sasuke exited followed by Ino, Tenten, Kiba and a few other members of the Konoha 12._

_The blur, now recognized as Naruto rushed to the bed at which she rested, "Sakura-chan! Are you okay?! Oji-san said you collapsed in the hallway!!!" _

'_I got up twenty seconds later…' Sakura sat back up from her reclining position, "I'm fine! I'm fine!" she appeased. No doubt, Naruto had skipped class to see her, while everyone else had requested passes. He was always rash like that when it came to people he cared about. "Sasuke…" she started to explain then swiftly broke off, her eyes flickered over to the exit and back. Her cheeks glowed that pinkish tone she normally despised, but this time, just this once, she didn't try to hide nor stop it. "Sasuke-kun, helped me… " _

_--_

When Sakura "awoke" she found herself in a movie theater like setting. The room was completely dark and empty except for a blue screen before her and two giant overstuffed chairs complete with drink and snack holders. The temperature even seemed to have been turned down to a low 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The odd thing about the selected area was not just that is was void of all sound, even wind, but it looked as if some one had used paint to invert the colors of the room. However, none of this surprised Sakura.

This was Inner Sakura's room.

It was at times when she had finished a dream but was not yet conscious, or she had been knocked out that she visited this area. Here where she could talk to her doppelganger face to face. Though, the whole excitement of the prospect seemed to die somewhere after the twenty-fourth time.

She groaned and placed a hand over her the upper part of her nose, massaging it. "Why does my head feel like I got hit over and over by a- a-… it hurts too much to think."

"Mmm. About that-" A voice sighed.

Sakura quickly jumped from her chair and spun to face the practically mirror-image of herself. The only major differences between them besides their clothes and skin tones were the presence of the Konoha forehead protector Inner chose to continue to wear, even though they received it years ago after graduating elementary, and their hair length and eye colors. Sakura's was short bubblegum pink with emerald. Inner's was long charcoal black with turquoise tips with ruby. "What did you do to me, spawn of the devil?" she growled.

Inner Sakura held up her hands up defensively as she walked to the empty seat beside her. "Oi! Oi!!!" she exclaimed sitting down with her before growing a twisted looking smile, "It's Not my fault that: You. Got. Trashed."

The guest of the room sent her host a strange look. "What are you talking about? I remember everything very clearly about last night!" She closed her eyes, recollecting the events. "I waited until everyone went to sleep, got the jar, went to go back upstairs, saw… Lee… and we…." Her eyelids suddenly wrenched open wide. "HOLY…" Her voice seemed to die out on her at that point so she whispered out a sharp, "What the hell did we do?"

Her innerself seemed a tad less than concerned as she fiddled with the silver remote in her hand. "_You_, obviously had a little too much alcohol. If you care to remember clearly enough, I didn't speak to you for a rather long amount of time? To be exact. During the entire time of the mission." she enunciated slowly as if to emphasize this point before shoving her index finger a centimeter away from her nose. "Why? Because You were so drunk you couldn't even comprehend _me_ trying to scream some sense into _you_!"

Sakura, still stuck in shock from the previous revelation, didn't even react to the discourteous gesture. She pushed an unsteady hand through the locks she must've let down to sleep. (Funny, she didnt remember changing her hairstyle.)"B-but I did the entire mission flawlessly…" She diverted her eyes and muttered under her breath, "Except for the end."

"Yeah, maybe in _your_ mind." Inner mumbled, pressing a button on the controller. The screen changed from it's light blue shade to a constantly changing colors "Please Wait" bubble. "I, on the other hand," The screen finally popped up revealing a deep red clock on a white marble-like wall. "Saw you fall asleep after checking the CLOCK on the wall, you did not Have a watch on!"

The real version took this moment to glance at both of her bare wrists and swore lowly.

"Wake up and stumble across the sleeping mats, almost stepping on Akamaru's tail by the way," A picture affirming her words fazed in. "Barely making it to the doorway by holding yourself up using the wall. Then you walked in circles for about half an hour, muttering to yourself 'Where the heck are those stupid bugs?'"As she spoke several pictures from many different angles passed through the slide show like projector.

Inner Sakura lazily stretched back in her chair and continued. "You eventually _found_ the stupid closet, which was really only the _third_ room you entered." A small walk-in closet appeared on the screen. The red-eyed chic turned to her counterpart and raised a finger. "That had only ONE entrance and exit by the way. Looked for an extremely unreasonable length of time for the bottle that was _right in front of your freaking face._" A picture of herself digging in a side-dresser drawer while the bottle was dead-center in the room. Lovely.

"Unraveled a hangar for reasons beyond my knowledge, used it to get down the bottle which was only an inch above your head. Took another five minutes searching for your bag that you put down to catch the bottle from falling- how you managed to do that in your state, I still wonder. Switched the bottles, left, _came back _this time _plucking_ the bottle easily off the shelf like you should've the first time, wrote some stuff on it, put it back- Note. Messing up and almost placing the _wrong_ bottle back on the shelf_." _Somewhere in the monologue the screen showed a teenage girl fumbling with two bottles.

"And trotted in an insanely cheery way back to the stairway only to run into a half-asleep Lee; _Who_, You woke up by slamming the door shut in your unexplainable excitement of scribbling on a bottle with permanent markers."

She looked Sakura, who, as of yet, had not interjected once having too hard of a time trying to wrap her mind around her real actions, directly in the eye, "I don't exactly know what _you _think you saw, but he looked like the same Lee to me. I think he must've been a little tipsy as well or stuck in a dream faze, because he did say some odd stuff, about… youthful bunnies…. or something, I wasn't really paying attention to him though cause you were thinking some pretty weird crap as well. Like about how he was being quote-unquote _seductive_, when all he was doing was staring at you with the same scary predator look Naruto gets when he sees Ramen. Before trying to freaking _devour_ your lips. Add that to you in your drunken sloppiness and what do you get?" A giant diagonal burgundy stamp with the single bolded word "Censored" appeared on the screen. Inner Sakura shook her head and pressed the power button on the remote causing the screen to go back to it's light blue. "Trust me, it was Not a pretty site."

Sakura moaned pitifully.

Seeing her other self's distress, she carefully added; not truly sure whether it would help or not, "But at the end I do think you started to get over the alcohol. We both saw Lee do his "Good Guy" pose before leaving."

She couldn't deny what she was seeing and hearing made pockets of sense. But… "But.. I didn't even drink any alcohol!" she lashed out of pure dire.

The darker of the two girls shook her head, multi-colored strands following close behind. "No, but you _did_ drink some punch, correction a _lot_ of punch; most likely _spiked _punch, after the Guitar Hero III match Naruto won against Lee. You know the one that sparked their rivalry throughout the rest of the night." She stopped and gave Sakura a sly glance before asking mockingly, "_Or don't you remember?" _

_-Multi-colored test-tube glasses indicated that illegal sake was also present.-_

Curse them, all stupid punch-spiking trouble-causing teens. Heh… she sounded like her hypocrite of a Head Nurse. "Ugh…is this why I had that random stupid dream flashback?" she murmured grouchily, placing her fingertips upon her temple.

"Actually not so random…"

Inner Sakura took the next few minutes to explain to her her recent dream's actions. They always had a connection with the real world. In this case her sake-soaked mind was thinking romantically about a boy she did not want to think about that particular way the night before, just as she had about Sasuke years ago, thus her brain formed a connection between the two events and connected with a bridge of the fabricated kind, a flash-back dream.

"So," Sakura commented after the lesson, "If I _hadn't _made-out with H.A. Lee last night. I _wouldn't_ of had to go through all that crap about that jerk?"

'**If you want to put it in layman terms, yes.'**

On instinct the peach girl pounded her own head in with her pillow. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!-Woah! Hold up, when did she get a pillow?

In a blink of an eye, the area faded out and the voices of Konoha 12 faded in.

She was back in the real world.

--

"Can't we go somewhere… like a water park…" She recognized the still sleep-garbled voice of Naruto whining.

Hey, that wasn't such a bad idea now that she thought about it. For September it was still pretty hot.

She squirmed under her thermally-advanced sleeping bag. Correction, _really_ hot. Somehow, she had, in her sleep, wiggled herself to the bottom of the sleeping bag way past the opening, bringing her pillow along. And it was all icky, warm, and sweaty down there too.

"Dobe, it's Saturday. All the theme parks are closed."

_Sasuke_. Sakura paused her hand in mid-air where it was readying to rip down the zipper inclosing her. A bit more of fake-sleeping wouldn't hurt anyone, would it?

Naruto let out a scoffing sound and she heard the sound of his futon squish indicating he had fallen back from his sitting position, likely with his arms crossed. "Well, whoever came up with the stupid idea of closing Konoha theme parks on the weekends, anyways?!"

There was silence. Sakura stretched her chin up the best she could without moving the covers above her.

"Uhh… Naruto.." Ino's voice started timidly, which automatically got her attention. Ino simply did not _do_ timid. "Do you remember that time you, Sakura, and Hinata had to go to ah-Suna for a while?"

She supposed she meant the first time. She remembered those days very well, that was when the Suna-4 was created. Suddenly, Sakura felt a dull pang in her chest. Something that only happened when she forgot important things. Very odd.

There was a pause, and Sakura could only guess that Naruto nodded.

"Well that same week you left…. Lee had one of his… _incidents_…"

Silence.

Angling her head a bit awkwardly and painfully, Sakura was able to see out of the opening of the bag and at most of the room's occupants, those of which she saw were awake.

What she saw was a Naruto with an utterly lost expression displayed his face. A bit like she was currently.

"You know, when he accidentally…" Ino made a cup with her hands and lifted it to her while tipping her head back.

" …Huh?" She was on the same page as Naruto in confusion right now; a scary thought when one thought of there IQ differences, but she could easily blame that on the fact that this was morning and her brain was not yet completely awake.

Ino moved to smack her forehead as she heard Tenten's voice interrupt loudly.

"Lee got drunk off of sake and practically destroyed a Wet 'n Wild."

Oohhh. Well, that explained….a lot.

Naruto's bright baby blue eyes widened and his eyes fluttered to some spot outside her vision. "But we were only nine when we went Suna!"

Tenten's voice started again, this time a lot less agitated. "Oh right, gomen let me elaborate. You know how Lee got after only a single drop of the stuff in middle school right?"

Naruto nodded once again.

"Well, imagine if he drank a Whole cup. All 8 oz." She paused here as if taking a moment to reminiscence. The small dash of humor in her voice during her next sentiments assured her theories. "Trust me, _age_ was Not a factor."

"Mmm. But, why did they close off all the parks?"

Ino shrugged. "Probably, to discourage and keep us kids from trashing another one."

A smart enough move, Konoha's theme parks made the bulk of their money during the summer anyways.

Naruto inclined his head as well, grudgingly accepting this new information. But that truncated as a his face lit up in delight. "Hey!" He sat up and faced the area where the Hyuugas and the SasuKari had placed their mats. He pointed at them, "You guys are rich! Why don't you just BUY us an amusement park!!"

_Naruto…_Even Sakura had to groan at that one.

She could see Hinata lifting an arm with a sympathetic look on her face, more than likely getting ready to let him down as lightly as possible.

Apparently though, Neji had other plans as he cut in before she could even utter a sound. "Yes, Naruto. We'll buy you Disneyland."

"Nice." Naruto commented with a smile, leaning back into his sleeping bag with his arms crossed behind his head. Poor guy didn't catch Neji's completely sardonic tone.

This seemed to be the end of the conversation and Sakura snuck her head back down to a more comfortable position. Unfortunately, the tiny movement caught the attention of the blonde girl beside her. Subsequently, her covers were ripped off her person in a matter of seconds.

"'bout time you got up Forehead-girl." She admonished frowning. "Because of you and Lee… whose usually the first up… We have to see the movie next week! _It's 2 pm_." She pointed towards the very same clock Sakura had purposively used the night before.

"Oops." Sakura intoned flatly, not in the least bit sorry. The glaring sunlight was hurting her eyes and made her squint.

At that moment, Shino entered. He was just quiet as he was normally, but there was a morbid sixth sense all the highschoolers felt tinge the air everyone sense something off. She and the rest of the conscious teenagers looked up to his solemn sunglassed face.

He held up an empty jar. "We have a problem."

--

NightDREAMERms: Okay, I admit it. I cheated on Inner Sakura's description. I really did just go to paint and invert a picture of Sakura. But I think that's a lot more interesting than the cartoon-like drawing they show in the anime. Hope you liked! Oh and YES! WE HIT THE HUNDRED REVIEW MARK! YEZZZ! Don't forget ItaSaku fans "Opal Necklace" (that should appease you for atleast one more chapter)!

One more thing. Originally this was going to be longer. But I already feel terrible enough, making you wait this long so even though this seems like just a filler chapter the rest in chapter 14 will have some major plot development, though you might not even notice it! (And because it was originally part of this chapter it's probably going to be shorter) And just to be_ extra _mean!

TEASER!

_"Sakura... you... smell like you have Sasuke's scent on you." _

_"You left this in my bed last night." _

_"My Late... Revenge?"_

P.S. Jasmine. I swear. If you double review on one of my stories one more time. I will NOT let you read chapters ahead of time. Or upload "Out of Context" for you. Evil, yes?


	14. Chapter 14

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NightDREAMERms: Hey ppls. I wanna apologize profusely for the tardiness of this chapter! And its not even the whole thing! It got too long so I had to split it up, AGAIN... This party's already lasted what two, three chapters long? Part of the reason for the lateness of this chapter is cause I was really sick; shots, pills, ultrasounds, the works. Seriously, by the end of last month, my parents didn't even have to show their ID's to sign me out of school or into the doctor's office, they knew the people _by name_. But most of it I'll blame on my own procrastination. Anyways, here is where the interrogation starts. Important information and better insight to my little A.U. world is provided here, (by who else but Ino, the gossip queen!). But most of this is just interrogation. It's uh… pretty long… if that makes up for anything…

* * *

I'm skipping the "Speaking" -formalities, you know it all!

* * *

Late Revenge: Chapter 14

The Mystery yet to be Solved:

* * *

"Couldn't they have just escaped by themselves? They're bugs right?" an unhooded boy yawned, eyes half-lidded and body in an unbalanced crouch position, clearly unbothered by the newest turn of events.

The room currently occupied seven people including herself. Most of which were on-edge in either suspicion (71) or of nerves (14, a.k.a. just her). The last seventh was made completely out of the unabashed boredom that was Kiba.

Now that she thought about it, Kiba and Akamaru had never had a very good "relationship" with Shino's bugs. What with the _accidental _drowning of one colony of insects (by dog urine) and the subsequent overnight flea and tick attack, Sakura was surprised the two forces had yet to officially declare war on another.

Akamaru had propped his owner fully up minutes before as if he wished to inform him of something, but it turned out that all that he wanted was to relieve himself. Back then for a split-second, Sakura's heart had frozen. How could she have forgotten about Dog-boy and Boy-dog's inhumanely strengthen and acute senses?! Easily they'd be able to sniff out the culprit, especially with her sitting _right there_ in the room with them(And it wasn't as if she could just get up and leave without looking incredibly suspicious). …Well, she wasn't so sure about Kiba's abilities… She'd only been with the insects for a couple of minutes and she hadn't even really touched them. But Aka definitely! She had pulled her knees up to her chest nervously when the dog detective was called upon. Her mind rocketing to produce some kind of alibi.

Luckily, Akamasu simply trotted over to where the bottle was being held by Shikamaru, the subconsciously-proclaimed leader of the investigation, sniffed it twice, glanced around the room, scratched his left ear with his paw and strode out into the hallway leading to the kitchens.

Hmm… maybe it wasn't so much luck as it was vengeance…

"But that's not the problem here." Tenten interjected bringing Sakura out of her reminiscing. She had missed part of the conversation being held around her but could soundly guess the she was speaking of the bugs. The brunette was sitting cross-legged atop her sleeping mat, hair still in tangles from the last night. Not that Sakura, herself, looked much better. Her bed-head was notorious (said to resemble a cross between a spray painted pink hedgehog and "Big Foot's Mom") and with all the tossing and turning she did late this morning to listen in on her group's conversation she was sure to be throned the wild-hair queen of the household. _Where was her freaking hair tie? _

"The fact that someone snuck in here to steal one our personal belongings, specifically, is. Someone who knew more than the average burglar." Shikamaru ended for her in an uncharacteristically earnest tone. He was twirling the "evidence" on his index finger. _Show off_.

"Sounds like someone's already figured it all out, eh Shika?" The blonde to his right elbowed him in the side, smile and eyes glinting.

Sakura forced her body to stay calm as Shika's eyes casually flickered over all the faces of the room, hers included.

Another twirl. "Possibly."

And for Shikamaru Nara "Possibly" meant about 85 ("Probably" being a 99.99) which indirectly meant _**Crap**_for her.

Several different pairs of footsteps echoed down the hall and all of the sitting conscious teens turned to face the group of six that had gone in search of more clues at the crime scene.

Crime scene. Sakura rocked albeit in her Indian-led position trying her best to hide her amusement. There was just _something_ about knowing more about a secret everyone else, around you was trying to uncover that left a giddy resonance…

Of course, that feeling only remained there as long as you weren't one of the suspects. And thanks to the fact that she went to a freaking _Ninja_ high school she doubted that would last much longer.

"Nothing." Naruto announced, plopping back down onto his sleeping bag making it swish loudly. "Nothing at all."

"Except that a couple room doors along the same hall were open, when they weren't yesterday evening, and the room Aburame's beetles were in was practically trashed." Sasuke interjected, giving the lounging blond a look.

Naruto simply waved an unworried arm, "Uh- Yeah, besides that junk."

"Nothing else was stolen or is missing?"

"Nothing." Sasuke retorted shortly.

"And were any of the exits or entrances, public or private left ajar, even partly?"

This time it was Hinata who answered. "No. None that Neji or I saw with Byakugan. Right, Neji?"

Neji nodded. "They were all secure."

"Okay." Shikamaru sighed, un-furrowing his forehead. "I have enough information to at least acknowledge that this was an inside job."

This statement brought around a shift of shock for most of the room (paranoia for poor Sakura who subsequently halted her movements) and a few feminine gasps but it was Tenten who sputtered aloud what they were all thinking. "A-An _inside_ job? Like one of us?!" Tenten sputtered.

"As much as I hate to say it. A lot of evidence points that way." She could of sworn Shikamaru's pupils had deflected into her own for half-a-second.

Ooh. There it went. Giddy feeling gone.

"But," Shika continued in a considerably lighter tone seemingly unbothered by the transfer of distrustful glances between the group before him. "A major key to the crime also points away."

The pineapple-headed genius let out another loud resigning sigh before sitting up out of his slouching form. He stared them down. "Look. I've known you all since longer than forever and I'll take your word for it if you say you didn't so it. If you took the beetles for a little prank or something(At this point he sent a sideways glance to Kiba (Hah! He was a suspect!)), raise your hand and tell us so we don't have to go through this entire investigation."

By now everyone had formed a misshaped circle around the empty enter of the room. From Ino to Shikamaru to Naruto to Hinata to the SasuKari to Neji to Tenten (to the _still_ sleeping Lee. He must sleep like a rock! (no pun intended)) to Chouji to Kiba and to finally Shino, no one budged an inch.

Sakura, on the other hand, felt her hand twitching involuntarily.

She sat on it.

Shikamaru swept his dark brown gaze across the room. "No one? No one's confessing. Okay, then." he threw the bottle in the air and balanced it on his middle finger. She was certain she heard him mutter "…troublesome...". But, she figured he must actually like doing these kind of things. Otherwise, he would've just proclaimed the entire situation too complex and went back to sleep.

Actually… the whole _group_ must like this "mystery-detective" stuff. Shino had more bugs!

"Let's start with what we know for sure. One," His index (not balancing the bottle) shot up. "Whoever stole Shino's property knew enough about him and this group to know that Shino only ever fully takes his bugs off when he's swimming in chlorine water, which he rarely does, or attending any kind of sleepover Tenten is present at."

The brunette blushed in embarrassment at the mention of her name as several in the room turned to her.

"Two, this person had a single purpose: To take the beetles. As Kiba can probably inform you this bottle never held the beetles, indicating that this is a replacement bottle was brought specifically for the crime. Kiba." He tossed the bottle to the squatting boy, who in his early morning drudge, almost toppled over whilst catching the container.

"Yeah. There's no bug or Shino scent at all on it." he answered once examining the jar.

"We can also safely rule out the possibility of the thief being a professional. If a hired crook-"

Who would pay someone to steal teeny-_tiny_ bugs? Better yet, who would _take_ the job. … Oh wait. That was her.

"-had performed this crime they would've at least made it resemble a burglary and wrecked or stolen a few other items as well. But this person only took what they wanted, sloppily; leaving all points of entry _wide_ open."

Well, _Hello_. She had been intoxicated!(Not intentionally but intoxicated nonetheless.)

"Had they entered the house after the party was evacuated more than likely a door or window would have been left at least unlocked."

"Based on that, we can also deduct that the thief was present at the party whether invited or not. The only hole in this crime I see is: Where's the motive?" His lethargic pupils traveled to Shino's sunglassed ones. "You don't have any enemies, do you Shino? Anyone who would profit from upsetting you or obtaining your clan's signature tool?"

Shino began to shake his head, but Chouji, who, realizing the seriousness of the occasion, had traded out his noisy chips for a frozen red and blue ice pop (or… maybe he just noticed how hot it was) interrupted after a noiseless slurp. "Oi. What about that guy at the karaoke place." he glanced to Sakura. "You weren't there."

'Oh _really_?' She cocked an angry eyebrow. 'Thanks for the Reminder, Chou!' She had already missed _so_ much in a such a _little_ time frame. And now even the _suspect _in the crime _she_ committed? She could scream!

And whose Uchiha-assed fault was all of this? Hate you, Itachi.

Tenten snapped her fingers once again jolting Sakura out of her ponderings. "Yeah that guy who lost that contest against you was _really_ pissed off, Shino! Tch. Sore loser." She commented degradingly, as if anytime somebody beat her highscore in darts she _didn't_ throw a major tantrum (Only subsiding when she re-beat their score).

"Well the guy _did_ get booed off stage. After all that boasting, you'd think he'd be at least mediocre_."_ Naruto piped back into the conversation. "Wait!-wait- didn't he say he'd '_get Shino back_'?" he ended with a air quotes and a snort despite the atmosphere. Well, she had to admit, the Karaoke-guy's ending sentiments _were_ a bit too cliché.

"Oh, yeah! His face was stark red." Ino recalled from the detective's other side. "But he didn't seem like the type that would hold a grudge…" she added thoughtfully. "More of an All-talk No-action person."

"Yes." Shikamaru murmured, eyes cast low yet bright, ignoring his female friend's last comments. Thought were whirling in his mind a mile a minute. "Yes, this makes perfect sense. He appeared to be the right age to attend Konoha High as well, and with the truckload of people who came here could've slipped in, if not already invited, unnoticed."

"And no one checked to see if everyone had really left after Karin kicked everyone out." Hinata interjected, hopefully. "He could easily hid in the pantry or some similar deed."

Sakura couldn't deny that she felt albeit like she was in some giant twisted game of Clue. _Was it Kiba with Akamaru into the living room? Was it the Karaoke-dude with the mike on the second floor? No, silly! It was a drunk Sakura with a sharpie in the closet! _

Nonetheless, she looked on as they continued affirming their suspicions, trying to resemble someone who was too consumed in mentally figuring out the crime to join in, but it was getting harder and harder to resist the urge to smile. They were totally on the wrong track (and were still going!) She was safe!

…And then. The worst possible thing at that moment had to happen.

They remembered Lee.

* * *

It was his sleep bag-neighbor who first noticed his lack of conversation near the end of the "game". It wasn't hard to forget the green blob in the corner who, contrary to popular belief, didn't utter a sound in his sleep(Well… _fully_ asleep, in anyway). She delivered a cheery "Let's ask Lee" before turning to her companion on the left before and proceeding to shake the living daylights out of the poor boy.

"LEE! Wake up!"

All poor Sakura could do was mentally scream the negative and look on helplessly.

Groggily whilst rubbing an eye (And looking normal as ever. Inner Sakura must have really been telling the truth.), he regained consciousness. "Hmm….? Gai-sensei? Is it already time for youthful Morning Training?"

"Lee, do you know anything about Shino's bugs? They were stolen last night. Did you see anyone suspicious?" Tenten continued both releasing him from her hold and disregarding his first sentiments as if she was used to it. Sakura couldn't help but cringe at the s-word, she preferred the term "Borrowed".

…with no intention of return.

And unfortunately, Deidara's logic wouldn't help her conscious this time.

Still not fully into it, the bowl-haired youth yawned soundlessly shaking his head. But then of course, just as Sakura believed she might have a chance, he became a bit more alert and looked over to her. She froze instantly. "Did you see anything, Sakura-san when you were up last night?"

Dang it.

As if someone had hit a trick wire alarm, Shikamaru's head jerked up and his chin swerved straight to her. "You were up last night, Sakura?"

_Stop being so freakin' smart all the time, Shika! _Actress-mode setting up her features, she proceeded to play the innocent act and frowned delicately at Lee. "What are you talking about, Lee? I never got up."

Lee blinked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion, mirroring her expression. "But I was sure… it all seemed so real." He ran a finger atop his bottom lip smiling dazedly. "Especially the kis-"

"Hey look! Isn't that that football you guys lost yesterday?" Sakura interrupted abruptly, cheeks bursting in extreme cherry-apple red. Yes, changing the subject made her seem even more suspicious. No, she did not care. For this very moment, _Screw the mission_. Her dignity was at stake! Her hand was gesturing out the window she had thrown it out the night before. Or at least thought it was. Please_, please! _

At first the green-clad ninja was surprised by her random interjection, but upon surveying the indicated area he dismissed the entire previous conversation, his eyes lightening in recognition. "Yosh! It _is_ our youthful football, I shall retrieve it before any of my slower and unfit companions! (- add pose here-)"

Naruto glowered from his sleeping bag and rolled his shoulder. "What was that fuzzy brows? 'Cause it sounded a lot like a race proposition to me."

And just like that the Solve-the-Mystery session met its impromptu conclusion as a few of the other guys(and Tenten!) joined in and continued the conversation. Shino himself, starting to take bets, on the competitors. Honestly, she didn't know why it hadn't ended earlier. _They were bugs. _Shino had millions! But she guessed they _had_ to at least name a prime subject to later extract "justice" from(Poor guy, whoever he was!). Inwardly, she wiped the imaginary sweat off of her forehead.

'**Woo, nice save-!' **Inner congratulated, before cutting herself off. **'Oops. I spoke to soon.' **

'Huh?-Oh.' She craned her neck to see Shika observing her.

Observing her as if he was dissecting a frog. She shivered.

To her fortune, Ino's face loomed in front of his just in time. She had her Gossip eye-gleam on, but lowered her excited disposition to a calm one and spoke lowly. "You heard about the party-casher, right? Why Karin closed the party?"

On the average day, Sakura wasn't one for gossip. Or more precisely, not one for spreading it. _Hearing_, on the other hand was a much different story. And presently she'd much rather be conversing with her blonde friend than cowering from the tactical genius's stares.

Besides, this actually interested her. She mimicked her low voice. "No, who? Why?"

"The heir of the Hozuki clan!" Ino squealed. Or _tried_ to but her hand came to muffle her shriek of excitement.

Sakura blinked. Feeling very much out of the loop. "…Who?"

Ino's lightly lifted eyebrows suddenly came down to knit angrily. "You've got to kidding me? And you dated Sasuke for over a year? How can you _not _know?"

Her eyelid twitched. You could she was a little irked at the Sasuke line. _What did this have to do with him, anyways? _"I get it. I'm a socially-retarded turd. Now tell me!" This was how it was always like. Because she wasn't a gossip-queen like Ino nor in a family like Hinata, most of the time when "Hot gossip" hit the streets she either wasn't inclined to find out what it was or didn't have the right connections to (During the time they were together, Sasuke rarely liked to speak about those kind of things, so there was practically nothing coming out of him either.). And with all the little ways different clans were connected and severed… it was difficult to keep track of it all. She _did_ know the heads of the Uchiha and Hyuuga family were often business partners. But that was about as far as her "greater knowledge" extended to.

"Okay. Here are the main facts." Ino may have looked annoyed whilst explaining this to her but she knew her friend long enough to understand that her blue-eyed friend enjoyed immensely the opportunity to gloat over information the pinkette didn't have. "Suigetsu Hozuki. Main heir of the Hozuki clan over in Mist. The Hozuki specialize in water-based jutsu and own a huge business that deals with over-sea trade and another smaller once associated in ship-building. They've been in major rivalry with the Uchiha for centuries. Fire and Water don't mix too well, do they? Get it? …Fine, don't laugh. Anyways, when Suigetsu showed up, the party had to end. Not really because we distrust the guy. We distrust his clan." Here she paused to see if Sakura had successfully absorbed that much. When she was greeted with a nod she continued. "The party was set at the Uchiha Manor, so it was highly dangerous to have such people around. Karin and Sasuke both knew this so they shut it down early."

Really? That was surely an interesting little twist. Apparently, Karin hadn't subjected the rest of the group to the small bit of knowledge that was him also being her ex-boyfriend. Briefly she entertained, the notion that Karin was actually a spy working under Suigetsu in order to get dirt on the Uchiha corporation but that faded quickly. No, those were true emotions she'd seen on the red-head's face. The truest she'd ever seen out of her, really. And why had she chosen her, of all people, to disclose this fact to(well not to, per say, but she said it in clear view of her)? It seemed like a real mystery was slowly unraveling.

Speaking of mysteries, she just realized something. Everyone else in her entire group, had known exactly who and what the Akatsuki were, down to their outer wear. She hadn't even been able to pronounce their name! Rumors… they had spoke of rumors then, didn't they? The only rumor she heard about the Akatsuki at school was the one she herself had started (Ha! Kisame!). The "Akatsuki Equals Danger" mantra seemed to beat noiselessly but heavily. "Hey, Ino. What rumor were you guys talking about the other day?"

Ino tilted her head in confusion. "Rumor about what?"

"You know, the one Kiba was talking about, about the Akatsuki. What's got everyone so freaked about them?"

Ino's eyes widened and she actually began to shake her head in disbelief. "I could understand the not knowing about Hozuki thing, but _this_?! Do you live under a rock? It's barely even a rumor! It was on the _news_!-"

Before Ino, could finish the thought. Shikamaru's throaty cough, caught both parties attention as well as a few others.

"Sakura. Kiba. I need you to come here for a minute." His voice called out. It had a slight edge to it, Enough edge, to make Sakura's green eyes narrow warily when she turned to him. Nonetheless with a quick 'We'll continue this later" to Ino, she crawled over to the pineapple-headed boy.

"What'dya want Nara? I was just about to race-"

"Kiba." Shikamaru directed, interrupting his complaint. "I want you to test Sakura for any unusual scents."

"What?!" Sakura bellowed loudly and scooted away, surprising the two next to her and unintentionally attracting the notice of all of the others. Didn't he say a moment ago that he'd believe everyone if they said they didn't do it? (Though she lied) He should believe her! (Though she actually did do it)

"Oi. Calm down." Shikamaru retorted, rubbing his temple with one hand as if her scream had brought on a sudden headache. "I know what your thinking and I still trust whatever you told me. But with what Lee said someone might've taken over your mind with a power similar to the Yamanaka's and used your body to do the deed… however unlikely that may seem… But a possibility tested will narrow the range of suspects even further." He gave her that eye of his. "There's no _problem_, is there?"

"N-noo." she stumbled apprehensively. Crap! Crappity-Crap Crap! What if he smelled the… wait… who did she give the bottle to again…? Wasn't she supposed to keep it in her clothes bag?… No. She was sure she handed it to someone. That part of the night was really fuzzy.

'_**Shit.**_** You don't remember?! I thought you were sobering up then!' **

'No… What?! Why!'

It seemed that today, was the no one utter a complete thought day because before Innerself could continue, she was interrupted _again. Really, _what was with people interrupting right when she was about to learn something extremely important?

Anyways, Kiba, who had been nervously shifting his weight as the pair argued sniffed the air and frowned. Before he or she knew it, he had grabbed her shoulders firmly and had his nose placed against her cheek.

"Ki-kiba!" she spluttered a bit embarrassedly, a part of her tangled hair caught the side of her lip. She brushed it away with a hand but the brunette was too absorbed in his action to comprehend her irritation.

Muttering a quiet "That can't be right" he carefully inhaled and examined whatever scent was on her and inched downward, taking another sample and down again. This method continued until he had absent-mindedly reached her neckline and proceeded to go further. With a furious shout of "**Hentai!**" and a harsh shove, the two were separated.

"So…" Shikamaru questioned, unfazed by the events.

She glared.

"Sorry about that, Sakura." Kiba apologized meekly, scratching the side of his nose once more before turning to him and the rest of the room. "Nothing really… _un_familiar_… _actually she has a scent that's eerily similar to Sasuke's… all over her body."

There was silence in the room as it took a couple of minutes for this to click in everyone's minds. But when it did-

"I _what_?!-"

"-But those two… and these two are…-"

"-That's… disturbing, Uchiha.-"

"-Wait… how did no one but _Lee_ wake up through-"

"-S-Sakura and Sasuke wouldn't…-"

"Sasuke-teme's a _PLAYA_!"

"Shut the _hell_ up, dobe!"

"I SAID SIMILAR PEOPLE!" Kiba roared over the commotion, hushing all other babbling conversation. "As in, not exact, but close to." he further explained anime-like vein throbbing on his forehead.

Mutterings of mutual consent filled the air and soon everyone had settled back into their spots(Appearing to no longer care whose scent it was), Sakura included.

But she noticed something strange.

Karin.

After Kiba's misunderstood announcement she didn't object; didn't bat her eyes and coo, "Why, Sasuke-kun, _why?!" _Hell she didn't even seem _surprised_.

_Hey_… Karin hadn't made a comment, other that volunteering herself to search for "clues", all day!

The red head questioned must've used her physic abilities to catch her staring and sent her a personal smirk. What was she up to…? After glancing around the room as inconspicuously as possible, Karin started mouthing words.

' "I…. know… who you were with last night"? Really? Would you like to tell me 'cause I have _no _idea." she mused inwardly, outwardly she mouthed quickly back, not really caring if she understood or not, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Ha! And it was the truth too!

'**Crap! This is serious Sakura!' **her inner voice broke through her mocking. **'This could totally blow our cover.'**

'_What_ could blow our cover?! What happened yesterday- er… this morning?" Sakura shot back.

'**Okay, listen up! You went and delivered the bug-bottle to Zetsu, who was still waiting in Itachi's room. … Actually they were playing Go… Anyhow, he left, and you umm… sorta-kinda collapsed… there… on Itachi's bed… on him….' **

…She collapsed…. On top of Itachi…

So _that's _where the "Sasuke-like" smell came from…!

'**That's all? That's all you got to say. You pass out, and end up drooling no doubt, all over an elite Akatsuki member; find out that somehow your ach-enemy has discovered that your fraternizing with your entire group's enemies **_**and all you can think about is what **_**dog-boy **_**said?'**_

Sakura's finger immediately went to outline her lip. _Drool?! _How Karin knew she didn't know, but it wasn't like it was much of a problem.

'Chill, Inner.So she knows that I went to his room. So what? She doesn't even know _why _I was there. Besides, she's got no proof.' she mollified. Really, what was she going to do? _Call Itachi Uchiha down himself to testify? _

Heh. heh. …_heeeeh. _She shouldn't of thought that. With her kind of karma she _really_ shouldn't of thought that.

True to it's cruel form, a moment later Karin's cheerfully annoying voice broke through the rest of the group's individual discussions, with a sing song ring of "U-chi-ha-_san_." Simultaneously, all other speech slowed and lowered.

She _wouldn't. _

"Hn." a voice called dryly back. Sakura started for two reasons. One, she had not realized he was standing right there on the stairs behind the living room(She wasn't _that_ bad of a ninja! He just always suppressed his chakra to the most miniscule amount. She was sure no one else had noticed either… then how did Karin know?) Two, he had actually _replied_ to the twit! Granted, it was only a grunt. But he made the effort!

Feminine ruby eyes mischievously darted to her own green ones.

She _would. _

"Could you please come here for a second. There seems to have been an incident last night. And we were hoping you could either confirm or deny a few things."

'Say no, Itachi! Don't give into peer pressure!'

But would the karma-goddess listen to her pleas? No!

"…_Aa_." There was a twist in that. Why was there a twist in that! What's he plotting?!

As the footsteps continued and Karin smiled an "Excellent" Sakura chose quickly to take no chances and did her best to conceal herself from the intruder. Unfortunately, the best "hiding spot" she could find in the very limited two seconds she had to acquire a place was:

"Oi. Sakura… what are you doing?"

"Shut up and don't move, Naruto!"

"And what if I don't want- _Ow! Ow! OW!"_

"Now _what_ was that?"

"Okayokayokay! Just let go of my ear-…-Freaking banshee."

"Shhhh!!"

From her genius position behind the blond's head she could see Karin and Sasuke making goo-goo eyes at one another. NO-wait! She knew that scowl! That SasuKari were arguing?! (Silently, but arguing nonetheless)

Sasuke gave the red-head _the _(-take a deep breath-) "What the heck do you think you're doing/ You idiot/ I'm actually freaked out of my mind but I'm pretending to be bored/ Even though I'm acting cool and stoic I really want to bust out laughing/ I gotta pee" look.

Yes. All these wondrous discernible meanings in just one expression!

Uchihas are very complex individuals.

Judging from the atmosphere it was probably one of the first there... and possible number five.

The girl nudged him and… oh _gag_. Pecked him on the lips. -Sorry but, she'd never get used to their PDA. Gross.-

Before she could fully take in, the younger Uchiha's reaction, the older appeared in the doorway. His dark eyes began to scan the room, but before he got to her super-

"**Obvious." **

-_undetectable _spot, Karen had somehow transported herself to a foot away from his person, effectively (but not purposely) blocking her from his view.

Safe, for now, Uchiha Itachi was unpredictable. Past experiences told her he like placing others in awkward positions. Today, she wasn't sure if he'd advocate or convict her.

"Arigatou, Uchiha-san. We just need to ask you a couple of questions then you can be on your way." she chirped. No, Sakura meant she _really_ chirped. Not that normal fake cheerful voice she used around the group, but a honest to Kami "happy to see you" tone.

_Interesting. _She chose to save this little slot of information for later examination.

"Aa." he replied. Ha! It was in a monotone. Seemed like the bunny had gone back under it's- Oh fudge.

Ruby scarred eyes had flickered up, in those few seconds, and found her own. She tensed and jumped even more behind her living concealer but it was too late. Her pink hair had once again called her out.

Well.. There didn't seem to be recognition in those pupils. That's a… good sign, right? Or was she just kidding herself…

"Did you see or sense anything out of the ordinary yesterday?" The red-head questioned in more of a professional tone than the pink-head had thought possible of her. "Anyone coming or exiting the estate at odd times? There's been a thievery."

Sakura actually breathed a sigh of relief when the elder Uchiha shook his head. She didn't know why she was so scared in the first place. Itachi was an Akatsuki. Why would he tattle on another soon-to-be member performing a mission?

Inner Sakura had already started rejoicing that Karin's plan (whatever-it-was) had failed when- "However, Sakura." The deep voice intoned lightly, the owner's gaze more than likely switching subjects.

The sigh caught in her throat, stifling itself and she visibly froze. Slowly she turned her head towards the malicious beast,

Please. Have mercy.

The Uchiha stalked over slowly to it's trembling prey, seeming to relish her anxiety. His hand slipped into his pocket, and out of the corner of her eye, Sakura was positive she saw her former shield tense and move his feet into a more offensive position. You know, as if he was going to attack the taller man if he showed signs of aggression. Like he _didn't_ just squeeze out of Itachi's predatory gaze thus leaving her in the open.

A smudge of violet dangled in front of her view and it took Sakura only a couple of seconds to recognize the object as her own hair tie.

Her expression brightened and her hand reached out to retrieve her property. So _that's_ where it's- wait. Her hand paused. She frowned. How in the world did _Itachi_, of all people get it.

Apparently, this was just the reaction he was hoping to get because a ghost of a smirk appeared on his face. He leaned in close, so close, in fact, that his nose brushed against her own.

"You left this… in my bed last night." he murmured, but the room was so quiet that it virtually echoed anyways.

Sakura was for lack of better term, dumbstruck. The Uchiha took this opportunity to empty the object into her immobilized palm and glide out of the room.

You see. Do you remember when she said Uchihas were very complex creatures? Well, this was a superb representation.

She had asked whether he would advocate or convict her. Oh, but naturally, the world can't possible black or white to a Uchiha. It's freakin' checkered. He went out of his way to _advocate_ her on one crime and **convict** her on a totally unrelated one. All in a few seconds too. Perfect exemplary Itachi Uchiha behavior.

'He's lying!'

'**Actually… it might be true. When you fell it's very possible the hair tie could've come loose.' **

Sakura chose to ignore her innerself's reasoning. She didn't really care if he had been telling the truth or not. The _way_ in which he stated it was purposely filled to the rim with sexual innuendo!

"Then.. The Uchiha I melt on Sakura was… o-oh man."

Sakura was forcibly pulled from her thought's with Kiba's statement. She didn't have time to be angry.

Her evergreen pupils shifted from fact to face; Shock, worry, disgust, anger, fright, and …. A vicious smirk from a certain Uchiha girlfriend.

She needed. And she needed them fast.

* * *

A/N: I could so end it here. And I would had I not wanted this task to over and done with already! I can move onto the next step in the plot. You're just lucky I'm impatient.

* * *

"There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this, I swear."

"Well, we're waiting, Sakura." Ino returned, arms crossed and fingers drumming. Out of all the responses Sakura had gotten, the blonde's was the most unexpected. Unexpected, in an strangely good way. Her only outward reaction was a slight grimace, not even dark enough to create forehead lines. Karin, on the other hand, seemed to be torn between grinning victoriously or acting appalled. She later settled for a disappointed headshake, biting her inner cheek to keep the smile from showing.

Conniving Mistress.

"Sakura?"

She had unconsciously stared glowering at the subject of her thoughts and had to blink back into the conversation.

"right… umm, you see." Think, Think, Think! She couldn't just say he was lying either! He had evidence!

For once, fortune took pity on her: A burnt-out light bulb lit up.

"Hinata, remember yesterday when you caught me on the second floor?" She spoke in such unexpected rush that she had to physically force the excitement out of her voice.

The dark-haired girl jumped, startled at the sudden mention of her name. She nodded hesitantly, a pink blush already building on her cheeks.

Perfect.

"I take it, you remember the story, as well?"

This time the nod was vigorous and pink had turned to cerise.

"Wait, what story? Why were toy on the second floor?" Shikamaru demanded. Just as she figured he would.

She put on a thoughtful expression, adding a finger to the side of her face for extra detail. _"Well…" _

"NO DON'T!" The normally soft-spoken girl screeched, hands already cupping her ears, gathering the room's attention. This time, Sakura didn't feel that bad about playing off the girl's insecurities. Had she been a bit more stable when it came to these sort of thins she probably would have questioned her more thoroughly and caught the soon-to-be and previous faults in her story. Was it _her _fault that her friend's mind was perpetually stuck in the mental gutter?

"Just trust me, Shikamaru-kun," she huffed a bit out of breath from her panic and loud interruption. "It has nothing to do with Shino's bugs and…honestly… you _don't want to know._"

Shikamaru wryly raised an eyebrow but said nothing more. Inner Sakura reflected on how false Hinata's words truly were.

"Anyways," Sakura started, taking back control of the conversation. "During my time in _the room_," She shot Hinata a look to check that she was following. Her occupation as an alibi was still crucial to the plan. "No, after actually. When they were roughly shoving me out, my tie must've come off accidentally and I didn't notice 'til morning 'cause I'm so used to it being down."

There were a few time issues with that explanation, but _really, _who would be watching her hairstyle **that** closely?

"Then how did _he_ get it?" Naruto questioned confusedly, cocking his head to one side. That was a good sign. He was no longer suspicious.

Sakura shrugged. "I guess he must've seen it on the floor." She forced her forehead to crease. "Come to think of it, I _did_ bump into him near the stairs…"

She glanced up and around the circle expectantly and a tiny bit fearfully. Now it was their turn to come up with the rest. She dearly hoped the many uneven seams in her fabricated story wouldn't show.

Surprisingly enough, it was Sasuke who pulled the metaphorical sheet over the rest of the group's eyes with his annoyed grunt and comment of, "Turning us against one another. Sounds like something he'd do."

Soon the entire incident was explained away in moments and the highschoolers were all settling back into their roles of idle chit-chat. This is when Sakura silently excused herself and stole away down the same path of the elder of the Uchiha brothers.

There was a time to be mad and a time to be calm. Now, was the time to be _pissed. _

_

* * *

_The Uchiha manor/mansion/estate had like many other houses it's size had a few courtyards as well as a large backyard. It was in a courtyard, the one with the maple in the center to be exact, that Sakura found Itachi. He was in a shack like room situated in the right corner. This little shack could probably fit three or four of her living rooms in it, but was a shack nonetheless. In a normal village, it probably would've been a tool shed for a wealthy heir. But there in Konoha, it was more than likely used as a weapon shed.

Entering the room and being greeted with shade from the immense heat, Sakura wasn't surprised to see her deduction had been right. The cloaked man was resting on a wooden bench hunched over on a man-powered and seemingly ancient metal sharpener. Using one foot to pump the lever and keep the stone wheel spinning , he watched the sparks emitted as the kunai he was holding against the tool smoothed it's edges. The room was filled with tons more interesting, and some plain perturbing, weapons but Sakura hadn't come there to admire them.

"Why." she asked tonelessly.

"Hn?" he returned detachedly much more absorbed in his progress and not even redirecting his eyes away from the knife-like weapon.

"Why do you enjoy torturing me so much? Huh?" Sakura started off softly, but gradually increased in volume and anger. "Does it somehow Please your twisted little mind to see me suffer? You _want_ my friends distrust me? Does is Amuse you? Does it? _Does it?!" _There was no reason at all for him to do what he did and Sakura wasn't about to sit back and take his or anyone else's crap quietly. She just wasn't that type of person. Sure she might've seemed "disturbed but fine" with it before but she was only withholding her emotions for the sake of her alibi. Playing around was one thing but _that _had been completely uncalled for!

The Sharingan user was silent. Silent for long enough that Sakura briefly questioned if he heard her at all over the roar of the engine but decided against that as he slowed the pace of the machine to a total halt.

He glanced up at her and studied her face as if making sure she was finished with rant before blankly stating, "I was testing you."

"Well I-" she started again in her loud tone but promptly cut herself off, absorbing his words. Anger flipped to perplexion. "You were… testing me?" Her fist unconsciously untensed and she rested her side against the metal wall of the shed. "How? What for?"

The whirl of movement and high-pitched squeal of metal meeting stone told her he had started sharpening his tools again. "True Akatsuki are powerful not only physically but mentally as well. By putting you in a stressful situation. I was able to gauge not only your ability to successfully dismiss, or in your case, disguise and hide your emotions, but also your mental reaction time and capability."

Sakura was astounded by the sheer amount of _words_ he'd said so far (continuously!). Though a little voice at the back of her mind told her that what he was saying made sense.

He picked up the kunai, and traced it's sharpened edge with a finger pad, surveying his work. "Real power comes from a combination of strength, intellect, and skill. From what Deidara tells me you need work in the physical department… for that we'll need to speak with Sasori. But your mental prowess does indeed appear to be great."

Sakura pondered this statement quietly, seeing the logic in it and curtly questioning this Sasori-person's identity. With even more depth, she saw that he was taking the time to explain this to her seriously; Treating her like an…. equal... well _almost_... …at least not like an annoying fangirl-like sidekick!

_And _he complimented her. Chocolate points to Itachi Uchiha! (Never thought she'd think that!)

Itachi placed the weapon into, what she supposed was, an unseen pouch under his cloak and stood up from the bench. With the same steady tone but with a light undertone and the tiniest hint of a smirk he recited, "Watching you squirm is simply an incentive." He then made a series of hand seals and eyed her gaping figure. "Use the hair tie. You look like crap." he uttered flatly before disappearing as if fading into the background.

She blinked before realizing she had been speaking to a genjustu doppelganger the entire time. Growling inwardly at both being tricked and his last words, she stormed, seething on the outside (frustratedly putting her hair up whilst Inner Sakura laughed it upon the inside).

Multiply Itachi's Chocolate-receiving points by 20 then add a negative sign. _That's _how many points he has!

* * *

"My… Late… Revenge?"

"Your what?" Ino called to the genius, who hunched over the jar studying it's paper label carefully.

"No. That's what the jar says. Someone wrote on the label with permanent marker."

Almost immediately, the genius was swarmed in bodies trying to see the supposed writing. Irritated, he tucked it under his lap and turned his head to Shino, brushing off the others' groaning.

"Didn't you see the words written on it before, Shino?" he questioned.

Shino nodded, not having moved from his seat unlike the majority of the room. "I saw the marks but it looked like chicken scratch to me so I ignored it."

Shikamaru simply inclined his head, accepting the answer.

"Late revenge .. Like the song?" Ino summarized contemplatively.

Tenten's hand twitched as if resisting an urge. With a forced steady voice she corrected her. "That's My SWEET Revenge, Ino _dear_. And that's not even the title. It's '_Revenga._'"

Naruto gleamed and pointed at her. "Ha! And you tell _me_ I make blonds look bad. Even _I _knew that!"

The female blond scowled. "You _do_." Then she turned her attention to the brunette and proceeded in a light it's-not-my-fault tone. "It's just an old song, besides I listen to more Pop than that stuff, only you and Hinata listened to that song when it was out."

"Can I look at it, now?" Kiba broke impatiently into the conversation already reaching his hand out for the container.

"Go ahead, knock yourself out." The pineapple-headed one mumbled and handed it over.

"…My…Lar… Clage?"

"No that's a T and E. And that big scribble over there is an R…"

As they debated the words pronunciation, Sakura, another part of the minority who had not rushed over, lounged on the newly up righted couch mentally mulling over her own writings with her innerself.

'My Late Revenge…?' She definitely did not remember writing _that_.

'**Personally, I think you were going for Late **_**Night**_** Revenge… but your drunken mind kinda screwed it up.' **

'No, no… I sorta like it.'

'**Obviously, you made it.' **

Sakura discounted her comment, the wheels spinning in her head. She felt a grin shaping on her face.

'I think we've just formed a new alias.'

* * *

_**A Glimpse into the Sociology and Psychology of a Teenage Girl's Mind **_

**Class: **_**Biology**_

**Period: **_**2**_

**Starting Date: **_**9/10**_

**Ending Date: **_**TBA**_

**Due/Turn-In Date: **_**To be Presented during the Last Week of the First Semester**_

**Project Title: **_**Late Revenge **_

* * *

NightDREAMERms: FINALLY! This chapter is over, and you guys get to see the story's namesake! It was pretty long. So I hope it keeps you guys satisfied for at least a little while. Review!!


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